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S y 
» Nov a7 Wal 
& 

“ay 
LOGICAL awe 





The 
FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 
of 
THE AMERICAN BAPTIST 
PUBLICATION SOCIETY 











BIRTHPLACE OF THE SOCIETY AND 
HOME OF “THE COLUMBIAN STAR” 


923 and 925 E Srreet, N. W., Wasuincton, D. C. 


Zann OF PRINCES 
n> 
og ICAL See 


FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 
of 

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST 

PUBLICATION SOCIETY 






By 4 
DANIEL GURDEN STEVENS, PH. D. 





PHILADELPHIA — 
THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 


BOSTON ‘ CHICAGO KANSAS CITY 
LOS ANGELES SEATTLE TORONTO 

















z “ r 
PRINTED] 
4 ae : 
‘ UNSs Aneta 
ahs a stank f Na 
. t ; ry ' Pat “a 
- a “, A ; “are 


PREFACE 


Tuts brief story of the first century of the Publication Society 
_ has a mission of its own. It is not put forth as a substitute 
for the larger history, “‘ Pioneers of Light,” prepared by 
Dr. and Mrs. Lemuel Call Barnes and Dr. E. M. Stephenson, 
nor yet as a summary of that volume. 

Necessarily the circulation of the larger work was limited ; 
the edition was relatively small, and was distributed within 
narrow circles. It was felt that a shorter history should be 
prepared, which could be more widely distributed, so that 
pastors and Sunday-school workers should have in their hands 
the story of the national organization which in a very peculiar 
sense is the pastors’ Society, the Sunday-school Society. 

For this reason the chapters of this little book were written. 

The author has availed himself, not only of the material 
presented in “ Pioneers of Light’ mentioned above and in 
the annals of the first fifty years of the Society assembled by 
J. Newton Brown, D. D., and published by the Society in 1856, 
but has searched the original records in his keeping as the 
Recording Secretary of the Board of Managers. The annals of 
the Society’s first century brought together by E. M. Stephen- 
son are incorporated here, together with the roster of names 
constructed by him, and published in “ Pioneers of Light.”’ 
The opportunity has been used to correct some errors that 
unfortunately existed in the lists as they were first printed. 

Naturally in the limited space at the writer’s disposal it has 
been impossible to develop all portions of the story as fully as 


Preface 


might be desired. Especially is this true of the biographical 
side of the Society’s history. The book could not be made a 
portrait-gallery of the century. With but few exceptions the 
illustrations show the Society's equipment and headquarters 
personnel of today. The text will carry the reader through 
the hundred years; the pictures will take him into the offices 
and the other workrooms in Philadelphia and show him the 
persons and the machinery in The Roger Williams and The 
Judson Press Buildings. 

To err is human, the author knows full well. To forgive 
is divine. If at any point he seems to do injustice, he begs 


forbearance, for the error is not of intent. - 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 
PRCT OCAN DAV SLON GiePr ike Milas Ci lnchs sain 252 I 
PIES BORGANIZATION: AND’A VLERGER S50 ots es es fs 19 
TESA GENERATION UNDER GRIPFITH Mo. ee ae oe Cy, 
IV. THE CONSUMMATIONS OF A CENTURY ........... 57 
Maat be ROSTER ORSTIHE(ENTURY: ic vi 244 cde Hanks eas SI 
VL eReMEL Er NIN ATO ORMPH Bate NP UR neater tig corre shee) ae se 95 


VII. OrriciaL NAMES, HOMES, AND DOCUMENTS ..... 109 


4 


; S465 on 
, 





LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PORE MUEC OAD fe LED OCIEE Vins a2 wel oie Eh vieas Step ond oa es Frontis piece 
Article in “ The Columbian Star” Showing the General Tract Society 
was Advocated in View of Unmet Needs ........ccccecceccncces 


Original Account of the Organization of the Baptist General Tract 

SSE Cet mer ences 20 et Pa Ma ert iae crate teicpis nue ts dane dais te ete 
Headquarters of the Society at 530 Arch Street, Philadelphia ........ 
TEE oC ES ee ete Na Poy 2 eS i Bek Ae pe Sean Se 
CMU OSEH DIT Ok ALAC CLDHIGe, sity uten ik Ge oon we do wo 0 Oe eaten as 
PELE PICO TAIT LC INSS DUN eas aed pee ck hea ore os hte n s Wh ed oe aap 
WEP IRE S OS LCOS SOL UTLGTAC Petty oe cima eiicig. 6 ota Fine SIS eM latte, bles ep 
Officers of the Society and Members of the Board, 1924-1925 ......... 
Members of the Board, 1924-1925 (continued) ........c. ccc cece eeees 
Members of the Board, 1924-1925 (continued) ..........c ecu e ee teees 
‘Gilbert N. Brink, D.D., Corresponding Secretary of the Society and 

General Secretary of the Board, 1919-1925 1... ccc cece cece eece 
Waltham fH zMain, DD: Executive Secretary. cous hoc i. win oa be 
FIED EMSS COLES SIEM, « LU SINESS VLOG CP al alerece arabes cook «ie ate nn ee Pees 
Secretarial Office of the Executive Secretary and the Business Mana- 

ger; S. Mildred White, Elsie K. Walter, Clara J. Duttarer, Office 

NY ARTI RENS S LAE A O The RUM Sr AY ea ee eS eo 
Daniel Gurden Stevens, Ph. D., Book Editor; Dorothy R. Hormann, 

DACMEVIION a LIUKIN; PASSISIANISS 4 et em Sales oes beliSd niece eae ole sareys ets 
Owen C. Brown, D. D., Editor-in-Chief, Sunday School Publications. . 
J. Sherman Wallace, M.A., B.D., Editor, Young People’s Publica- 

Po Ris 9 Ti ae OAL rir ae Urs SERA PaO MNT A Fe nar E ae SR YM rh Ge SE RN eee 
Mitchell Bronk, Ph. D., Editor, Adult Publications ..........00. 0005. 
Nathana L. Clyde, Editor, Week-day Lesson Texts; Susanna G. Fisher, 

LOO ree OUI, SOVIET UL cee ee ee Cid hoe ne eS 
Anna Edith Meyers, Missionary Editor ...... Ree ecm ar dai sees 
J. Eugene Reed, Assistant Editor, Adult Publications ...........0.05 
Emma L. Brown, Editor of “ Young People”; Frances Forman, Filing 

ES PLELEUIA Coictts Cae eM OR PRT Re eevee GS iin Ue se Ro 
Margaret Clemens and Eva Mae John, Editors of Children’s Publi- 

BLOT Rat, Baton tint NG eae at eRe AO, SEIN VE Tag Ol wc view ae aka vid eRe 
Elizabeth A. Shuff and Eleanor Sayre, Office Secretaries ...........5. 
Samuel G. Neil, D. D., Bible and Field Secretary; Linda DeArmond, 

Office Secretary; Margaret C. Guy and Varena B. Hill, Assistants. 


PAGE 


50 


List of Illustrations 








PAGE 

The First Colportage Automobile Equipment Sent Out by the Society— 
Colporter D. B. Ward carrying hs books in lis hand ............ BZ 

A Group of Converts in Connection with Chapel-Car Meetings at 
Petalunia, Calife. oii os oe cv ieee ace eT eee 54 
Chapel Car Auto No. 1“ Crawford Memorial s\n... so ua aire cree 56 

William E. Chalmers, D. D., Secretary of Religious Education; Eliza- 

beth M. Finn, Special Field Worker; Jennie C. Lind, Office Sec- 
VELAVY «hs oe Ck eh a Capa NE Ce eee ee ee ae Er EN Yr siete 58 

Seldon L. Roberts, Director of Leadership Training; Mildred E. 
Adams, Librarian, Religious Education Department .............. 60 


Thomas S. Young, D.D., Director of Vacation Church Schools and 
Week-day Church Schools; Mildred E. Adams, Office Secretary .. 62 
Meme Brockway, General Director of Children’s Work; Marion Gray, 


Office SECrELOPY eer ee csihoe ote re ae es eae ee 64 
Samuel Zane Batten, D.D., Social Education Secretary; Anme L. 

Maclaughtin, .OfictevS ecretary >. tos. sie eee ce eee ee ee 66 
John W. Clinger, Advertising Manager; Dorothy H. Bowman, Office 

SOCTE LOATH os Shee Roa hw OS 4 ARETE bea OR a 68 


H. Watson Barras, D.D., Superintendent Sales Promotion Depart- 
ment; John Bersch, Field Representative; Elizabeth Whitaker, 
Office: Sécretary en. s cao oe seis ook a nes Ce 70 


Workers in the Sales Promotion Department ......0.0.0csccceccesees 72 

Treasurer's Department; Elvin L. Ruth, Assistant Treasurer; A. R. 
Matthews, Accountant, General Field Department ............... 74 

Headquarters Bookstore; Joseph P. Hughes, Manager .............. 76 


Telephone Exchange, The Roger Williams Building; Edith L. Dewey, 

QO Peratorec cee cc Ses 1k Coa Chee ee CE ee 78 
Office of Superintendent. The Judson Press Building; Hilmar 

Schneider, Superintendent; Fred C. Cook, Cost Accountant; 

A. D. Syckelmore, Assistant Superintendent ......ccccccceeecccs 82 
Mail Order Depariment, Looking East, The Judson Press Building . fine Om 
Mail Order Department, Looking North, The Judson Press Building.. 86 


Composing-room, The Judson Press Building ........ccccccceveevees 88 
Composing-room, Battery of Linotype Machines, The Judson Press 
Buslding Horse nadertns ons oa oe Le ee Oe ee 90 
Electrotype Foundry, The Judson Press Building ............0..e0e0s 92 
Northeast Section of Press-room, The Judson Press Building ........ 96 
Southwest Section of Press-room, The Judson Press Building ....... 98 
Rotary Press for Printing “Young People,’ The Judson Press Building 100 
Folding Machines in Bindery, The Judson Press Building ............ 102 
Pamphlet Bindery, The Judson Press Building se ae on 104 
Periodical Shipping: Department ..% 2.2. ..2. ee ee 106 


Branch Managers 300 oa ee eee ee 110 


TRACTS AND VISIONS 


13824—1840 





““ How far that little candle throws his beams! ”— 
Shakespeare. 
’ 
“The leaves of the tree were for the healing of 
the nations.’’—Revelation. 


“There is reason to believe that the Head of the 
Church designs that much shall be done by the 
instrumentality of tracts in converting the world.”— 


Report of 1829. 








It is unnecessary to use uny argument to 
prove the usefulness of Pract” Containing 
nothing sectarian, they convey in a cheap 
form and in a plain style, the great truths 
which are revealed in that gospel, ** worthy 
of all acceptation.” In the accounts of re- 
Vivals, we sce numerous instances, where a 
tract of six or eight pages was made the 
happy instrument of introducing the solemn 
realities of religion to some poor sinner. 
The most vicious and abandoned outcasts of 
society have frequently been led, by read- 
ing 2 tract, to think on their ways, and re- 
turn to God. If the circulation of Tracts, 
then, bean efficient means of doing good, 


who would refuse to engage in the work ? 
The eastern states can be amply supplied 
by their numerous societies,—but how shall 
the wants of the southern and western states 
he gratified? Where shall the work bein ? 
Who will go forward ? Let a Society be-soon 
formed in this city to make a commence- 
ment—-Let a few numbers of evangelical 
tracts be immediately published—Let agents 
be appointed in different places in the neigh- 
bouring states, who shall form auxiliary So- 
cieties and collect funds for publishing more 
tracts. The expense will be trifling com- 
pared with the probable good which must be 
the unavoidable result, if the concerns of the 





TENS SLAB 





WASHINGTON CITY, 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1824, 


——— - ——- 








For the Columbian Star. 
BAPTIST TRACT SOCIETY, 


Mr. Epitor, 

My attention was seriously arrested by 
your suggestions in the last number of the 
Star, relative to the formation of a Baptist 
‘Tract Society. The subject may be some - 
what novel to our denomination, but cannot 
fat tomeet the decided approbation of all 
who wish well to the interests of Christi- 
anity. society should be rightly conducted. 

‘The American formerly the New-Eng-; If it be suggested that the formation of a 
land, Tract Society, has been signally blest | Socicty here will have a tendency to limit 
in its laudable efforts ; and its prospects of] and injure the influence of the American So- 
extended usefulness are highly encouraging.| ciety—-We may answer that the contrary 

The pious and devoted agent of that val-} will be the probable effect. The liberal and 
uable Institution is unwearied in his labours enlightened men who compose that large 
to increase its funds, and to give an exten- | Socicty, cannot look with a jealous eye on any 
sive circulation to the million heralds: of effort to extend the knowledge of Christ 
truth, which by these funds are furnished. ] among the destitute. If their {racts do not 
This Society has, according to the last Re- find their way into cur denomination, it is time 
port, 92 Dépositorics ; 67 of which arc] that we should do something to effect what 
east and north of Pennsylvania. The large | they do not. It is time for the, Baptists to snow 
states, Virginia, Kentucky and South Caro- themselves equal to other denominations in 
lina, in which the Baptists are excecdin gly evangelical effort. And, Sir, as numbers of 
numerous, contain but six Depositories, | espectavle gentlemen are ready to co-ope- 
The states, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, con- {| T#te Inthe good work, permit me to hope 
tain none. It may be truly Said, that nearly | tata Tract Society will soon be sct in op- 
ajl the Baptist population south of the Po-| ¢ration, under the direction of judicious 
tomac and west of New-York are wholly | men, and governed by such regulations as 
destitute of Evangelical Tracts. Many | shall foretoken good to thousands. 
have not heard that there is such an associ- oO. 
ation as a ‘lract Socicty-—others are pre- 
vented frum purchasing and circulating 
‘Tracts, by theiy distance from the general 
or subordinate Depositories. 


ARTICLE IN “THE COLUMBIAN STAR” 


SHOWING THE GENERAL TRACT Soctery WAs ADVOCATED IN VIEW 
oF Unmet NEEDS 


ES 





The Society was born out of the life of the Baptist denom1- 
nation. 


An Era of Creative Impulse 


Creative impulse ran strong in the denomination’s life at 
the time of the Society’s birth. Three great national Societies 
still existing in strength were brought into being within two 
decades—the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 
1814, The American Baptist Publication Society in-1824, and 
The American Baptist Home Mission Society in 1832. Evi- 
dently the first third of the nineteenth century was a period 
when Baptist thought issued into purpose and was both far- 
reaching in vision and practical in designing and shaping in- 
struments to the fulfilment of great plans. 

Baptists were not alone at that time in being so deeply 
stirred to think and plan and build. Other denominations also 
were getting the advantages of an atmosphere, and were 
feeling the touch of a spirit, that widened the outlook of the 
mind and the sympathies of the heart and inspired the forma- 
tion of agencies to perform the larger tasks of a progress, 
which was to make the century remarkable as the morning of 
the modern missionary era. 


Mental and Spiritual Ferments 


Enlivening influences came from the field of scientific study 
and from the world of politics, national and international. 
Already triumphs had been won, anticipations, first-fruits, of 
greater triumphs to come, for the era was to stand out above 
all the preceding ages as the century of science. In the United 
States education was being democratized; the system of com- 


[3] 


The First Hundred Years 








mon schools was becoming nation-wide. On the American 
continent, north and south, political power was passing into 
the hands of the people. It could not but be felt that there 
were goals ahead, and goals worth while for self and for 
humanity, which might be reached more quickly and surely if 
only plans and means could be found adapted to the great 
common cause. The mental stimulus from scientific progress 
and the spiritual quickening imparted by growing appreciation 
of the rights and possibilities of the common man, at home and 
in all countries, and by acceptance of the idea of education as 
necessary to enable men to find themselves and to use them- 
selves in wisdom and in strength, had their part in stirring 
Baptists and other Christians to the achievement of epoch- 
making advances. 


The Missionary Spirit 

But in the ferments that roused the religious world of the 
time chief place must be given to the missionary idea. This 
united in itself spiritual and mental elements of quickening; 
it enlarged the thoughts of Christians far beyond the confines 
of neighborhood and nation, and gave visions of the progress 
of all peoples into the light and liberty of citizenship in the 
kingdom of heaven. Carey had gone to India two decades 
before; now Judson was in Burma, and new Acts of the 
Apostles were being written in chapters of life that appealed 
and challenged to larger and more adequate interpretation of 
Christ’s gospel of salvation and service. And not alone in 
Asia, but in the homeland, in growing cities and in the regions 
of the West where the possibilities of human ill or good were 
wide as the unfilled spaces and as deep as the hearts of men and 
women, the missionary spirit had its field of work that called 
for the finest of intelligence and of devotion. Therefore, as 
in England, so in the United States the churches were roused 
to grow hands and feet more adequate for the newly discov- 
ered and rapidly developing needs of service. 


[4] 


THE COLUMBIAN STAR. 
Mancu 6, 1824. 


BAPTIST GENERAL TRACT SOCIETY,’ 

On Wednesday evening, Feb. 25, a meet- 
ing was held, pursuant to notice, for tlie 
purpose of forming a Baptist Tract Society. 
After prayer, by the Rev, Luther Rice, the 
Rey. Dr, Staughton was appointed Chair- 
nian, and Mr, James D. Knowles, Secretary. 

It was thenresolved, Thata Tract Scocicty 
be formed. A Constitution was proposed, 
and after some amendments, was adopted, 
as follows; 

CONSTITUTION. 

Art. 1. The name of this Society shall 
be, “* Zhe Baptist General Tract Society.” 
Its sole object shall be to disseminate evan- 
gelical truth, and to inculcate sound morals, 
by the distribution of tracts. 

Arr. 2. Any person may become amem- 
der of this Socicty, by paying the sum of 
one dollar annually. The payment of ten 
collars at one time, shall constitute a per- 
son a member for life. 

Axt. 3. There shall be an annual meet- 
jng of the Society, on the last Wednesday 
in February, when the following officers 
shall be chosen, by ballot, viz.: A Presi- 
dent, Vice-President, Agent, Recording Sc- 
cretary, Treasurer, and a Board of Direc- 
tors, consisting of the President, Vice-Pre- 
sident, Agent, Recording Secretary, and 
Treasurer, who shall be Directors in conse- 
quence of their office, and seven members of 
the Society. Five Directors shall constitute 
a quorum for business. The Board shall 
have power to supply any vacancy that may 
vccur in its own body. 

Art. 4. The Directors shall superintend 
the publication and distribution of such 
tracts, as they shall approve; the appoint- 
ment of subordipate agents; the establish- 
ment of depes:tories, the formation of aux- 
iliary societies, &c. ‘They shall hold fre- 
quent meetings, under such regulations as 
they may adopt, in conformity with the ge- 
neral provisions of this Constitution. They 
shall appoint the place and the hour, forthe 
annual meeting of the Society ; aud may, 
if they think proper, make arrangements 
for an annual sermon, or public addresses, 

_and a collection for the bencfit of the So- 
ciety. The Directors and the Treasurer 
shall make an annual report of their pro- 
ceedings. 

Art. 5. The Agent shall conduct the 
correspondence of the Society, and shall 
carry into effect the measures adopted by 
the Board of Directors. A 

ArT. 6. The Recording Secretary shall 
keep a record of the proccedings of the 
Board vf Directors and of the Society. He 
shall receive all monies, keep a record of 








them, and pay them over to the Treasurcr. 

ArT. 7. Every member shall be enutled 
to receive three-fourths of the amount of his 
subscription in tracts at cost. Auxiliary 
Societies shall be entitled to the same privi- 
lege. 

Art. 8. Any person, by paying twenty- 
five dollars, at one time, shall be a Direc- 
tor for life.. ‘The Presidents of Auxiliary 
Societies shall be, ex officio, member's of the 
Board of Directors. 

Art. 9. The President shall call a meef- 
ing of the Society, at the request of a ma- 
jority of the Board of Directors. i 

Art. 10. Any alterations of this Consti- 
tution may be mace at an annual meeting, 
by the concurrence of two-thirds ox. the 
members present, 

The following officers were then chosen: 

Rev. O. B. Brown, President. 
Rev. John Bryce, Vice-President. 
Mr. George Wood, -4gent. 
Mr. Isaac.G. Hutton, Aecording Sec’y. 
Rev. Luther Rice, Zreasurer. 
Rev. Dr. Staughton, 
Samuel W. Lynd, 
Messrs. Joseph Gibson, 
Joseph Thaw, Directors. 
Enoch Reynolds, 
Reuben Johnson, 
James D. Knowles, J 
Ordered, That the proceedings of this 


mectivg be published in the Srar. 
Adjourned. Prayer by Dr, Staughton. 


BAPTIST GENERAL TRACT SOCIETY. 

A letter to the Editor of the Star, from 
a gentleman in Providence, Rhode-Island, 
Says? 

“T have noticed, in the last Columbian 
Star, an article on the subject of a Baptist 
Tract Society. It occurred to me at once 
that such an association would prove im- 
portant to our denomination, and to the cause 
of religion in general ; for, however we may 
wish mento become #ufitists, we wish all 
to become evangelical Christians-—The 
American Tract Society has been long in 
operation, and has done immense good to 
the cause. Another Society in Bosten, more 
immediately under the control of our Bap- 
tist friends, has lately been chartered. But 
these should not prevent the establishment 
of the one proposed in your paper, to be 
more central, and to extend its operations 
more particularly to the southern and west- 
ern parts of the Unicon. I think that some 
assistance may be expected from this quar- 
ters 


ORIGINAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORGANIZATION 
OF THE BAPTIST GENERAL TRACT SOCIETY 





a 4; i 


Tracts and Visions 


Organization a Practical Outcome 


Thus organization was a conspicuous feature in the field of 
religion in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Mis- 
sionary activities of Christians in England and America made 
necessary the development of institutions as machinery to 
accomplish missionary purposes. The Baptists in the United 
_ States had their own noble share in this movement. Not only 
their response to Adoniram Judson in Burma, but also their 
practical answer to home needs in the home country—an 
answer already in progress before Judson sailed, but made 
- much more willing and vigorous and well planned under the 
power of his call for support in the world-wide enterprise— 
brought to pass a multiplicity of organizations, local, State, and 
national, many of which remain as effective and honored in- 
strumentalities of the churches today. Among these came into 
being the Society which, having had a continuous history of a 
century, has borne for eighty years, with some slight varia- 
tions, the name “‘ The American Baptist Publication Society.” 


Other Denominations Responsive 


Several prominent denominational publishing houses had 
their origin in the movement just described. Baptists came to 
feel the need for such an agency of their own. To be sure, 
works by Baptists for Baptists were issued by some presses. 
Books appeared. Tracts were issued. But there was no Bap- 
tist house to take the Baptist publishing business in hand. 
More and more it came to be recognized that such an institu- 
tion should be had if the Baptist part in Christian work was 
to be done in any adequate way. Baptists believed their part 
was real and important. Denominational consciousness, de- 
nominational purpose, interpreting itself in terms of earnest 
loyalty to Christ and the truth, as the legend on the Society’s 
seal affirms to this day, called the Society into being and gave 
it a growing commission. 


[5] 


The First Hundred Years 


A Work of Men of Vision 


There was no concerted movement on the part of a multi- 
tude that bore this fruit. In this case, as in so many others, 
‘““Where there is no vision, the people perish.” ‘There were 
men of vision, who saw farther and more clearly than their 
fellows, who dreamed and planned, singly at first, and then in 
small groups, men who brought the creation of their dreams 
and visions and practical plans before the multitude and sup- 
ported it by their prayerful labors till the multitude at last saw 
the worth of what was before them and gave it their own 
approval and an opportunity to serve them and their cause. 


The Parable of Samuel Cornelius 


To do perfect justice to all who had part in inventing and 
inaugurating the new thing of good is not easy. Some men, 
and not a few women too, whose names have been preserved, 
and others of whom record has been lost, helped to shape the 
proposal and to give it weight. No man who writes with dis- 
criminating justice the story of the great movement we call 
the Protestant Reformation, would leave out Martin Luther; 
but no man who writes that story with just discrimination, 
would picture Martin Luther as the all in all of human origin 
and driving force and consummation of that movemient. 
Doubtless every one who now thinks of the beginnings of the 
Publication Society brings to mind Samuel Cornelius and his 
bell-crowned hat, out of which accidentally fell a number of 
tracts when he removed the head-covering at a little meeting 
called to consider the formation of a Baptist Tract Society. 
A suggestive figure, that man! A prophetic picture! A kind 
of perambulating tract depository, a forerunner of the Baptist 
missionary colporter distributing Baptist literature, and by 
conversation, sermon, and Bible teaching winning converts, 
organizing groups of believers, and establishing new centers 
of Christian life in town and country! Mr. Cornelius is to us 


[6] 





wl 


ial 
eee 


tal ui yi A ial Ht Ai: ii Ta i i 
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HEADQUARTERS OF THE SOCIETY 
AT 530 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA 


1850-1876 





Tracts and Visions 


a parable. Small wonder that an artist’s eye has seen coming 
out of that tall hat the whole history of the Society’s work of 
publication and distribution as it has been unfolded in the 
processes of a century’s developments, and that the author of 
the pageant celebrating attainment of the one hundred years 
of service placed Mr. Cornelius and his hat in the forefront 
of conspicuousness in the first episode. Honor, large honor 
to Mr. Cornelius, sensible, practical, doing determinedly in his 
limited way what he wanted done in a big, grand way. But 
the idea was not his sole possession; he was not the single 
source. He was a type, a picturesque, appealing type, of 
those with whom he shared the conception and with whom he 
wrought to bring it to pass. 


The Birthplace of the Idea 


The Society was organized on February 25, 1824. Back 
of the deed of the few men who met to take this action there 
was conversation, correspondence, and the slow upbuilding of 
conviction and purpose during a period of years. A writer in 
The Columbian Star of February 21, 1824, might say with 
truth that the idea of such a Society “‘ may be somewhat novel 
to our denomination,” but it was not at all novel to members 
of a group who were interested in promoting religious intelli- 
gence in the churches and in ensuring Baptist advance at home 
and abroad. 

The Society was born in Washington, but has had its home 
in Philadelphia for ninety-eight years, and it is worth while 
to note that in Philadelphia originated the idea which had 
fruition in the organization. 

The origins of the Society were most intimately connected 
with the educational work in the denomination which was 
quickened to vigor by the return of Luther Rice, the com- 
panion of Adoniram Judson, “to try to engage American 
Baptists in missionary undertakings.” Rice conceived his 
God-given commission in the largest possible terms. He 


[ea] 


The First Hundred Years 


aimed, not merely to secure funds to support Judson and other 
workers, but to develop a trained leadership and to diffuse 
missionary intelligence. ‘Lo this end educational institutions 
were necessary. Therefore, one of the first projects of the 
General Convention of the Baptist Denomination was to estab- 
lish a “‘ Classical and Theological Seminary.” Philadelphia, 
in 1818, became the temporary location of this school, which 
in 1820 was removed to Washington and became a department 
of the newly established Columbian College. 7 

But before the removal, the possibility of establishing a 
Baptist tract society in Philadelphia was a subject of lively dis- 
cussion by Luther Rice, Principal William Staughton, Pro- 
fessor Irah Chase, and students in the Seminary, who later 
became active in organizing and conducting the Society formed 
in Washington. This discussion arose, it seems, out of a very 
practical consideration. John S. Meehan was the printer for 
the Triennial Convention; he was also the teacher of a class 
in the Sansom Street Sunday School, “and almost every 
month had a difficulty in dealing out tracts to the children, on 
account of their anti-Baptist tendencies. No Baptist tracts 
were then printed.” A practical man, dealing with print, he 


determined to propose the establishment of a Baptist Tract Society in 
Philadelphia, with the intention of. making it a General Society. In com- 
pliance with this design, I had two tracts set in type, as the first publica- 
tions to be submitted to the Society when formed. .. The young brethren 
at the Theological Institution in Philadelphia, under the care of Doctor 
Staughton and the Rev. Mr. Chase, knew of the design, and gave it their 
sanction. . . The subject was not matured in Philadelphia, owing to the 
determination of the Baptist Convention (in April, 1820) to found a Col- 
lege and Theological Seminary in Washington, and to remove the publica- 
tions of the Board of Missions and the Board itself to Washington. When 
we arrived in Washington, I proposed to found the General Tract Society 
here. But it was not deemed advisable at the time to do so, as all the 
effective Baptist force here was engaged energetically in advancing the 
prosperity of the College, and the publication of The Columbian Star, a 
weekly religious paper, and the Latter Day Luminary, a magazine which 
was originated in Philadelphia in the year 1818, as the official publication 
of the Board of Missions under the authority of the General Convention. 


[8 ] 






























































































































































































































































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THE OLD “1420” 
Tue Sociery’s First BumLpiInG at 1420 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA 





Tracts and Visions 


Although the establishment of a Baptist Tract Society was not matured 
in Philadelphia, it was originated there in its design, and founded on the 
necessity existing for such an institution. 


The Society Organized 

When the Seminary was removed to Washington there were 
many interests, which, as Mr. Meehan intimates in his letter, 
demanded one’s utmost energies. But the idea of a tract 
society would not die. There was always some one who felt 
the pressure of the need, and who spoke out. Finally, Samuel 
Cornelius, with his bell-crowned hat as a depository of tracts, 
accidentally fired the imagination of the Rev. Noah Davis, and 
in February, 1824, that highly gifted young minister, who had 
been ordained only two months, wrote a letter to James D. 
Knowles, Editor of The Columbian Star, proposing that a 
tract society be got up in Washington, “ to hold the same place 
among Baptists that the American Tract Society [of Boston] 
does among the Congregationalists.” Mr. Knowles and Mr. 
George Wood had “much conversation.” A practical diffi- 
culty was seen. Who would be general agent to bear the 
burden of the undertaking? Everybody the two friends could 
think of was too busy already—except Mr. Wood himself; 
and he had dyspepsia. So there was a delay of a week. Then 
Wood consented, and Mr. Knowles put a notice in the Star, 
calling a meeting of those interested in the project, and on 
Wednesday evening, February 25, 1824, the Baptist General 
Tract Society came into existence. A constitution already 
drawn up by Mr. Knowles was offered, amended, and accepted, 
and officers were elected for the ensuing year. 


Removal to Philadelphia 

When news of this action had spread, approval was quick 
to come, especially from the South. A large part of the early 
contributions to the Society’s work came from Soutktern 
sources. But the North also was responsive with welcome and 
aid. And the stern requirements of business success, not lack 


[9 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


of hospitality, soon forced the new organization to make its 
headquarters where the great idea was first formed and nursed 
against the hour of its embodiment. Luther Rice had wanted 
“to make Washington a Baptist center of influence.” The 
Baptist General Tract Society was a part of a scheme of cen- 
tralization fostered by him and many others. Questions of 
finance were troublesome, however. In ten months 86,500 
copies of nineteen tracts were printed. But these tracts were 
not stereotyped. The editions were soon exhausted. It was 
determined to make plates of all tracts. for this the tracts 
must be sent to Philadelphia; then the plates were shipped to 
Washington, where the printing was done, after which nearly 
one-half of the output of the press had to be sent to Philadel- 
phia for shipment to Southern centers. Obviously Washington 
hampered the Society's usefulness. Mr. Wood, wise man of 
business, at the end of the first year proposed removal to Phila- 
delphia. Luther Rice successfully opposed him. Another year 
of embarrassing circumstances followed. Rice still held firm. 
But at last the persistence and self-sacrifice of George Wood 
(who, as a last resort, resigned as General Agent to force the 
issue) and the persuasive wisdom of Noah Davis prevailed, 
and on November 14, 1826, the Society voted that the seat of 
operations should be in Philadelphia. 


Early Homes 


The day of small things was not immediately over, however ; 
it proved to be a long, trying day. Headquarters were estab- 
lished in a second-story room fifteen feet square on Front 
Street, a few doors below Market Street. If that first home 
in Philadelphia, which cost the Society $100 a year and was 
retained for eight months, seems humble, what shall be thought 
of the second—merely a few shelves in the bookstore of David 
Clark, No. 118 North Fourth Street? Then, slowly, came 
more generous room. After a year and a half a store on the 
northwest corner of Fifth and North Streets was occupied, at 


[ 10] 



















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE CROZER BUILDING 


At 1420 CHESTNUT STREET 


PHILADELPHIA 


9 





Tracts and Visions 








a rental of $200. Four years later, a longer stay, of eleven 
years, was begun in a store at No. 31 South Fourth Street, 
rental $380. Again a larger rental, $550, was assumed when 
in 1844 a house at No. 31 North Sixth Street was taken as a 
depository. This served for six years, when the insufficient 
accommodations could no longer be endured. Then, for the 
first time the Society, in April, 1850, entered a home of its 
own, at 118 Arch Street. 

This little chapter of stays and removals is given to suggest 
a story of years of struggle against poverty and weakness and 
into enlarging strength and usefulness. 


Means of Support and of Service 


Pains were taken to keep in direct touch with the churches. 
Business reasons and considerations of service would demand 
this. But the result was also to feel the pulse and know the 
mind of the denomination. Means of communication with the 
Society's constituency, feeders of its treasury, and promoters 
of tract distribution were: 

1. Branch societies, composed of both men and women. 
From the first the wisdom of enlisting the aid of the women 
was recognized and was vindicated in loyalty which steadily 
gave material aid and came to the fore with welcome generosity 
in some severe crises. Of the twenty-five persons who re- 
sponded to the general call to organize the Society in 1824, 
seven were women. The contribution of a woman, Mrs. Gil- 
lison, of Philadelphia, who afterward became Mrs. Heman 
Lincoln, secured the conditional gift of $500 offered by Na- 
thaniel R. Cobb, of Boston, soon after the removal of the 
Society's headquarters to Philadelphia. One of the first lega- 
cies, of $20, was from a woman in Connecticut who wished 
“to constitute her minister and her physician life-members.” 

In 1829, it was recorded that nearly all of the newly organ- 
ized auxiliary Societies “ give one-half, or more properly two- 
fifths, of their funds as a donation to aid in the support and 


[ 11 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








enlargement of the General Society.” These organizations 
were then regarded as of first-class importance; to them it was 
felt the Society must look for the needed support. In 1830 
there were 322 of these auxiliaries. But the hope of their 
serviceableness proved vain for the most part. Many of them 
had a very brief existence—never even reached their second 
summer. Very few were really efficient. Time proved that it 
was better to approach the denomination through the churches, 
the Associations, and the State Conventions. 

2. Depositories, at points near and remote in the Society's 
territory, sometimes owned and supported by the Society, 
sometimes wholly maintained by individuals or by auxiliary 
societies; often simply deposits of tracts in churches. Doubt- 
less these were a necessary institution in those early days, but 
most frequently they were an occasion of expense rather 
than a source of income, and hence the maintenance of them 
was often a question sorely debated, and not less so in later 
years when for the many depositories (39 in 1833, 53 in 1836) 
the Society adopted a system of a few branch houses. 

3. A paper; at first The Baptist Tract Magazine, first issued 
in 1837 as a monthly, to contain 24 pages, at fifty cents a year. 
Projected for profit, it was often run at a loss. In 1837, it 
was replaced by a folio monthly, called simply our Monthly 
Paper, which gave way a year later to The Baptist Record 
published semimonthly. These changes were not indicative of 
desperate seeking to find a way of making the paper pay, | 
although in 1839 that result was actually achieved, for a time 
at least; they rather showed an enlargement of the ideas of 
service which the Society was coming to adopt, as will be 
shown in a later chapter. 

4. Traveling agents. From the first, there were, of course, 
agents in charge of the depositories, and in addition a number 
of district agents; doubtless, these men did not depend upon 
any income from such sources for their living. To be sure, 
provision was made in 1828 that agents of depositories should 


[ 12 | 





THE ROGER WILLIAMS BUILDING 
1701-1703 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA 





Tracts and Visions 


have reasonable compensation as the Board might decide. But 
in 1830, previous to the death of Noah Davis, the Society 
employed traveling agents “ for the purpose of forming new 
Auxiliaries, establishing Depositories, collecting funds, and of 
promoting in every laudable way the interest of the Society.” 
Six men were listed in such positions in 1833. But most of 
them gave only part time to the work. In 1836 the statement 
was made that six agents were employed in different districts 
for a time equivalent to the steady service of one man for two 
years. The service of such representatives visiting churches 
and denominational gatherings proved then and later indis- 
pensable. 

Obviously the Society was feeling its way, not only to 
develop its work, but to present the claims of that work with 
ereatest effectiveness to the churches. 


Response to the Denomination’s Needs 


Born out of the denomination’s life, it has ever been respon- 
sive to the denomination’s needs. 

For the first sixteen years the Society was an agency for the 
publication and distribution of tracts. In that period it issued 
over 3,500,000 copies of 162 different titles. And in the years 
since it has continued this work, so that now it has at command 
a great body of tract literature in English, and has published 
numerous tracts to meet the needs of foreign-speaking peoples 
in America, eighteen different foreign tongues being repre- 
sented on these lists. 


Visions of Larger Usefulness 


The denomination, having grown an arm, became desirous 
that it should come to larger usefulness. The Tract Society 
had to be shaped into something more. Individuals of course 
first saw the possibilities. Who first perceived and described 
them no one can now say. There remain evidences that there 
were visions of wide service and that the willing servant chafed 


[13 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


against the restrictions of lack of means to do all that might 
be done. 

The Tract Magazine, projected as a medium of communi- 
cation with the constituency of the Society, is a witness to ideas 
in the germ which came to a noble maturity in later decades 
when capital had been put into the Society’s hands. This 
periodical was more than a means of procuring interest and 
funds for tracts. It furnished news and helped promote de- 
nominational consciousness and unity. It showed a develop- 
ing conception of the Society’s possible service. A “ Table of 
Baptist Associations in the United States and British Prov- 
inces ’ was printed annually, for several years, showing among 
other items the number of churches, ministers, baptisms, and 
church-members in each Association, and the date of the 
annual meeting, and giving also the name and address of the 
correspondent who furnished the statistics. ‘The service ren- 
dered by such information was invaluable, and we cannot 
wonder that it led to the conception of much more detailed 
annual statement of the growth and organization of the de- 
nomination, and that in 1833 the Society put forth the first 
issue of a publication which was projected first as an annual, 
then as a triennial register (1836), but which was abandoned 
for lack of support. 

Not many months had passed before a Youth’s Department 
was added to the Tract Magazine, and presently the paper 
bore the title Tract and Youth's Magazine. This was the 
Society’s first publication for young people in the churches and 
Sunday schools, the forerunner of the finely organized series 
of periodicals and papers issued today. ‘That the thought was 
not simply to interest the young folks in the circulation of 
tracts is clear from the nature of the material and also from 
the thoughts that were brooding in the minds of the Society’s 
leaders. | 

For instance, in a number of the Magazine, containing the 
Society’s report for 1830, appears this sentence, probably 


[ 14 | 


Ti 


Geahae 





THE JUDSON PRESS BUILDING 


PHILADELPHIA 


? 


LOMBARD AND JUNIPER STREETS 





Tracts and Visions 








written by Noah Davis, the practical, far-seeing, great-hearted 
man who was then the General Agent, “ The time may come 
when the number of schools in our denomination will be so 
great as to require the Tract Society to publish a series of 
Sabbath-school books suited to their wants.” Of course he 
did not foresee all that modern Sunday-school psychologists 
and students of pedagogy see; nor would they, had they lived 
in his times. But his sentence shows a mind at work in its day 
for the morrow that was to be. 

The successor of Mr. Davis, Ira M. Allen, had the same 
thought. A letter written by Mr. Allen, in April, 1833, to 
J. L. Holman, in Aurora, Indiana, speaks in warm advocacy of 
the need of a general Sunday-school agency which should issue 
distinctively denominational literature for young people and 
for others. 


A New Commission from the Denomination 


The editorial word in the Tract Magazine and the letter of 
Mr. Allen are representative of correspondence and discussions 
which finally passed into the formal councils of the denomina- 
tion, and presently, in 1835, had issue in resolutions adopted 
at the meeting of the Triennial Baptist Convention at Rich- 
mond, Va., stating that it was expedient and timely 


to have a Society to publish and circulate valuable books, particularly of 
a denominational character, for Sunday school and family use, 


and requesting the Baptist General Tract Society 


so to alter its constitution as to include such publications, and that the 
publications of the Society ... be confined chiefly to such as set forth the 
peculiar and, as they are believed to be, Scriptural principles of the 
denomination. 


In the Missionary Business 


From the beginning the Society was more than a business. 
It was in business for the churches and the Kingdom of Christ. 
The missionary spirit possessed it. There is no need to won- 


[15] 


The First Hundred Years 








der at this when we know that it was born out of the thoughts 
of Luther Rice and the men around him. In its weakness it 
strove to reach out an arm of help to Adoniram Judson. In 
1829 it was reported that a beginning had been made toward 
collecting funds for the publication of tracts in Burma, in the 
Burmese language. “There is reason to believe,” says the 
Report, “ that the Head of the church designs that much shall 
be done by the instrumentality of tracts in converting the 
world.” It was hoped that the Tract Magazine would yield 
profits from subscriptions which might be devoted to Judson’s 
work, especially the publication of Scriptures in Burma; this 
hope was vain. But in 1832 two hundred and forty-five dol- 
lars received in donations was sent to Burma for the printing 
of tracts in Burmese, besides a gift of 55,000 pages of tracts 
for circulation among the English in that country. 

Yet more important was a foreign mission in Germany, 
where Captain Tubbs had put a few of the Society’s tracts into 
the hand of J. G. Oncken, in Hamburg. Oncken, already con- 
verted, and leaning to the Baptist position, but as yet unbap- 
tized, was greatly impressed by the message of the tracts to his 
own mind and heart, saw their great possible usefulness to 
others, and appealed to the Society for help, which was given. - 
Thus the Society, by God’s providence, was called to have an 
exceedingly important part in the initiation and development 
of a work of Baptist evangelization in Germany which spread 
past national boundaries, into Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, 
Sweden, Austria, and other countries of Europe. Lacking 
funds, the Society appealed to its friends and Christ’s friends, 
and money was provided for the translation and publication of 
material in German to be forwarded to Oncken, and money 
was sent to him for use by him in the work of publication. 

The kingdom mind was in the Society’s leaders. Their 
organization was poor in money, but rich in outlook and in 
spirit. By 1838 work had been begun in Africa, Nova Scotia, 
Canada, Texas, Mexico, and South America. 


[ 16 ] 





AMBROSE M. Battey, D.D. Cares N. ArBucktr, D.D. Joun W. Graves, D. D. 
President Vice-president Vice-president 
Washington Massachusetts West Virginia 





Gerorce L, Estasproox 
Treasurer 





J. P. Crozer GrirFitH, M.D. JosepH E. SAGEBEER, Ph. D. HARRY BAINBRIDGE 
Chairman of the Board General Counsel 


Pennsylvania 
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 


Cot tet pe ee ne enema ete te ve. cee 


Ke ee Med 





Tracts and Visions 








Bricks Made and Laid, Without Straw and Scanty Clay 


There were not lacking, therefore, in those early years of 
the Society’s life a broadening vision of possible usefulness 
and actual authorization by the denomination to embark upon 
the larger service which the men to whose care the Society’s 
work was committed were eager to develop. Yet five years 
elapsed before the Society was reorganized in accord with the 
request of the Triennial Convention. A grave hindrance was 
in the way—the lack of funds. Men of brains and heart and 
faith were at the head of the Society’s business. But they were 
asked to make bricks without straw, without so much as clay. 
Already in 1825 the annual report told the agony and the hope- 
fulness: “ Must then the want of funds remain an insuperable 
obstacle to the circulation of Baptist tracts in the United 
States? We trust not.” Able general agent succeeded able 
general agent, each worn down by the constant strain of 
trying to make one dollar do what two would not have sufficed 
to accomplish! 

To be sure the recognized business competency of Noah 
Davis, and much more his attractive personality, and his con- 
tagious enthusiasm, availed to procure an increasing measure 
of support during the few years of his official connection with 
the Society’s affairs. (1826-1830.) But, on his greatly la- 
mented death, at an early age, there was an immediate and 
alarming decline in receipts—nearly one-half of the reasonable 
anticipations (instead of $5,830 only $3,094.09). 

His successor, Mr. Allen, found an empty treasury, a grow- 
ing debt, and a despondent Board. Unflinchingly accepting 
the burden, he did not narrow the field of the Society’s en- 
deavor, but enlarged it, calling attention to needs in the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, where workers of the Home Mission Society 
might become effective distributors of tract literature, and in 
mission fields abroad. His appeals roused the Board and fired 
the generosity of the churches, but of a hoped-for $20,000 for 


[17] 


The First Hundred Years 











the advance work he was able to procure only $6,000, after a 
diligent canvass of a year. The terms of Mr. Davis and Mr. 
Allen covered the period from the removal of the Society to 
Philadelphia in 1826 almost to the time of its reorganization 
in 1840. Benjamin R. Loxley succeeded Mr. Allen, and served 
during the period of reorganization, distinguishing himself 
as “ the patient man of business.” Not simply the enlargement 
of the Society’s field of work, but also provision of more ade- 
quate physical equipment was part of the vision of the new 
day in the minds of the ieaders. In January, 1834, a circular 
had been issued addressed especially to the women friendly to 
the Society, asking contributions toward a fund for a tract 
house. It was thought that a suitable building, with proper 
equipment, would cost not less than $15,000 or $20,000. The 
results of the appeal were not very encouraging. In 1840 the 
Tract House Fund, both principal and interest, amounted to 
$938.49. 

Another fund which had been in mind since the Society’s 
coming to Philadelphia was capital with which to do business. 
There was no permanent investment yielding interest that 
could be applied to expense or to advance work. But the men 
at headquarters had business sense and planned and hoped 
and waited for the long-deferred day when the denomination 
would supply these needs. ; 


[ 18 | 





Joun W. CLEGG Henry E. Core E. B. CoLuMER 
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 





E. Leroy Daxin, D. D. H. BoarpMAN Hopper Harry L. JENKINS 
New York Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 





Gove G. Jounson, D. D. ALBERT G, Lawson, D. D. H. Kine MAcFarLANneE 
District of Columbia New York Pennsylvania 


II 


REORGANIZATION AND A MERGER 


1841-1856 





“To effect the object of its organization, a con- 
siderable amount of capital is required . . . once 
liberally establish it, and it will perpetuate itself.”— 
Report of 1841. 


“The paramount object of the Society ... . is to 
make our denomination, and all others over whom 
we have influence, a reading, thinking, working, and 
devotedly religious people.”—J. M. Peck, in Circular 
of 1843. 


“The right arm of home missions.”—B. M. Hill, 
Corresponding Secretary of The American Baptist 
Home Mission Society, in an address on the impor- 
tance of the Publication Society, in Brooklyn, N. Y., 
May 18, 1846. 








ROsTe tis PIERCE. D271), CHARLES H. RANNELS, D. D. JoHn D. RHOADES 
New York New Jersey Ohio 





ROMEYN RIvENBURG, A. M. FraNK H. ROBINSON W. Quay RossELLeE, Ph. D. 
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Massachusetts 





Levi L. Rue R. W. Swetranp, LL, D. Epwarp L, Taytor 
Pennsylvania New Jersey Pennsylvania 


fg he 
aah 


wate 





{I 


Action by the Tract Society at the request of the Triennial 
Convention that the Society modify its constitution to enlarge 
its work, was delayed for five years; first, because the com- 
mittee appointed by the Convention to obtain the concurrence 
of the Board of the Society, owing to the appointment of its 
chairman, Rev. Howard Malcom, as ‘‘a deputation’’ to 
Burma, was never called together; and secondly—something 
of more weighty importance—the Board was struggling with 
grave financial difficulties that imperiled the very existence 
of the Society. 


~ 


Reorganization Effected 


New pressure and a fresh opportunity for effective appeal 
to the churches came when the Hudson River Association, 
meeting in 1839, brought home to the denomination the urgent 
need of a Baptist Sunday-school union to furnish a juvenile 
literature corresponding to Baptist convictions. The Board, 
thus encouraged, issued a circular which denominational jour- 
nals gave wide publicity, presenting a plan to modify the Tract 
Society so that it should be empowered to issue Sunday-school 
publications and any others which the good of the churches 
might require. A Sunday-school convention, called by the 
Hudson River Association, met in New York City in 1840, and 
appointed a committee to draft a constitution for a Sunday 
School Union. At the annual meeting of the Tract Society 
in the same city, in 1840, this constitution was read, and re- 
markable agreement was found between what the convention’s 
committee proposed and what the Society’s Board had in mind. 
Action was taken amending the constitution of the Society 
as proposed. ‘The Society thus reorganized was called The 


[ 21 | 


The First Hundred Years 








American Baptist Publication and Sunday School Society; 
this title proved too cumbrous, and five years later, when a 
charter was granted by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, it was 
shortened to read The American Baptist Publication Society, 
which was practically the title originally suggested in the circu- 
lar sent out by the Board on March 25, 1840. By error the 
Society was at first regarded, even at headquarters, as a new 
organization, and it was not until 1853 that the annual report 
corrected the notion and indicated full consciousness of a con- 
tinuous history from 1824. Oddly enough also, the first report 
under the new name, in 1841, was published as “ The Second 
Annual Report of the Publication Society”! Somebody was 
evidently badly mixed. 


The Objects of the Reorganized Society 


The objects of the Publication Society, as set forth in the 
new constitution, were, “to publish such books as are needed 
by the Baptist denomination, and to promote Sunday schools 
by such measures as experience may prove expedient.” The 
Society would learn to do by doing. A wide field was contem- 
plated. The term “books” was intended to be construed 
inclusively—* tracts, Sabbath-school books, also biographical, 
doctrinal, historical, and other valuable religious works as shall 
be required,” “chiefly publications of a denominational 
character.” The antecedent discussions and the practise 
of the Society agree in showing this understanding must be 
taken. : 

Amicable arrangements were proposed whereby publications 
of the American Tract Society and of the American Sunday 
School Union could be handled by the Society and its agents 
on the best possible terms. 

It was planned that measures be adopted to put into exten- 
sive circulation, in each State of the Union, the publications 
of the Society and of the other organizations just named, by 
establishment of depositories, and by appointment of traveling 


[ 22 | 





GILBERT N. BRINK, D. D. 


CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY AND GENERAL SECRETARY 
OF THE BOARD 


1919-1925 





Reorganization and a Merger 
‘££ »  lllllll—l_l_——_——————EEE 
agents who were to be well equipped with denominational 
tracts and books. 

Superintendence of the Society’s business was to be effected 
by appointment of one or more General Agents, a Depository 
Agent, and an Editor of the Society’s publications, “ men of 
business habits, of experience and talents.” 

_ An arrangement was to be sought whereby the New England 
Sabbath School Union should either be amalgamated, or enter 
into advantageous agreement to supply “a large and very 
general assortment of their publications.” 

Here was a program of moment. It contained much that 
should give shape to the Society’s work during the remainder 
of its first century. 





A Working Capital Onrnired 


The first thing, however, was not a big accomplishment of 
aims proposed, but a struggle to obtain means. Working 
capital was sorely needed. The liberality of the denomination 
must be the spring. But it proved a rock which, though 
touched with appeal and struck with reiterated earnestness of 
beseeching, was slow to respond. Once establish the Society 
on the basis of an adequate capital, and this servant of the 
denomination would care for itself by its own operations. So 
the Board said plainly in 1841, and, again in 1842: 


unless our operations are enlarged, it is almost useless to attempt any- 
thing. .. But must we then let the Society die? By no means. 


In 1843, it appeared that an attempt to obtain a capital of 
$60,000 or $70,000 by an average contribution of ten cents 
from each member of the denomination, had utterly failed; 
only $1,550.95 had been received for this purpose, the receipts 
from all sources being only $9,906.04. The appeal was re- 
newed. In 1844, an effort was begun to obtain $50,000 in five 
years, at the rate of $10,000 a year. At the meeting of the 
Society warm interest was shown in this project, and $725 


[ 23 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


‘was pledged ina few moments. But the plan failed. It must 
not be supposed that the Society’s work was decreasing during 
these years. It was enlarging. Annual receipts were showing 
a gratifying change. Legacies were becoming an important 
service of aid. In 1846 it was recorded that during the years 
of service of J. M. Peck as Corresponding Secretary, 1843- 
1845, the Society’s capital had been augmented by $9,000. 

A most important undertaking was proposed at the anniver- 

sary in 1846, when Thomas Watson, of the Committee on 
I‘inance, advocated raising by subscription a fund of $10,000 
for the use of the Society, the interest of which shall be appropriated ex- 
clusively to the gratuitous distribution of its books and tracts among the 
destitute, at the discretion of the Board of Managers. 
The motion was carried, and pledges were at once received 
from five persons to the amount of $2,000, Mr. Watson giving 
$500. The plan met with favor, and in a single year $5,000 
had been subscribed. It was reported in 1847 that the Building 
Fund had reached $1,659.97, paid in, and on interest, and that 
the total assets of the Society were $15,789.33 with no liabili- 
ties. In 1849 the $10,000 Fund was at last reported fully 
subscribed, this being the first fund of any size concerning 
which such a fact could be stated. In 1853, the last payment 
on subscriptions was made, and the full annual interest became 
available, the Society putting the capital into its business, and 
making grants in accord with the provisions of the fund. This 
annual devotion of interest on the fund has continued all 
through the years, and up to 1924 over $43,000 had been paid 
out in grants of the Society's publications. 

The day of encouragement had arrived. Capital and phys- 
ical equipment were now available. In 1850, the Society’s Phil- 
adelphia Depository was moved from the small rented building, 
31 N. Sixth Street, which had been occupied for six years, to 
quarters at 118 Arch Street, secured and prepared for the So- 
ciety’s use—‘‘a spacious and beautiful edifice” by contrast cer- 
tainly. A Building Fund of $25,000 was begun to pay for the 


[ 24 | 


AUVLAYIAS FAAILNOAXY 


‘d ‘d NIVW ‘H WVITIHA 











Reorganization and a Merger 


headquarters and to erect additional buildings upon the lot; the 
“spaciousness ”’ already seemed cramped! Within three years 
the fund was complete, but a committee declared the lot and 
building inadequate and recommended removal, some $30,000 
more being declared necessary, of which $12,000 was offered 
by two brethren if the remainder could be secured; and in 
1856, endeavor was begun to obtain $100,000, of which 
$30,000 should be for building and $70,000 for publishing 
purposes, the two subscriptions to be blended in one under the 
heading of Enlargement of Permanent Capital. For the want 
felt in the years of Noah Davis was still with the Society— 
adequate capital. With the exception of the Ten Thousand 
Dollar Fund and the Twenty-five Thousand Dollar Fund, for 
_ building, together with a few liberal legacies, little had been 
done in thirty-two years to give the Society needed strength 
and efficiency. 

Some comparisons show a remarkable progress: In 1840, 
after sixteen years, the entire property of the Society, in stock, 
funds, and cash, was $4,121.70. In 1855, after deducting all 
liabilities, it was $63,667.03—a gain of nearly $60,000 in fif- 
teen years. Not all this was working capital. Making all 
necessary deductions there was available for publication pur- 
poses only $39,300. ‘This, after thirty-two years! But better 
things were to come. Of them another chapter must speak. 


The Break Between Northern and Southern Baptists 


The Society was organized as a national Society, and has 
always functioned as such in all the changes of the century. 
Its support, however, for the first few years came almost ex- 
clusively from Southern Baptists. At the close of the second 
year of its history, of the twenty-six persons enrolled as life- 
members, twenty-one were living south of the Mason and 
Dixon’s Line. Of the $1,010.33 received during the first two 
years all but $133.73 came from Southern States. Men of the 
North rallied with interest and gifts of money to the Society’s 


[ 25 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


aid a little later. Later still, the questions centering around 
the institution of slavery divided the nation into opposing 
sections, and drove a wedge of differing opinions and senti- 
ments between Baptists of the country at a time when the 
Society was in critical need, for in 1845 feeling reached such 
a pitch that the Southern Baptist Convention was formed, and 
from that year to the present the division has been maintained. 
But sectional feeling did not avail utterly to destroy the prac- 
tical appreciation of Southern Baptists for the Publication 
Society, and the Society, as will be seen, did not at all forget 
the South, but come to its aid in years of grave trouble. 

Let it not be supposed that all or most thought and energy 
were given to obtaining capital. The writer has purposely 
elected to speak of this lack of means in order that against 
this as a background may be projected some noteworthy 
achievements. 


The Beginnings of the Society's Books and Periodicals 


The Society was reorganized in 1840 to do a larger work of 
publication. The work was done, and well done. There is no 
space here to give a catalog; the list would weary many readers 
if it were inserted. But some illustrative facts may be given. 

The first books published by the Society when as yet it was 
merely a tract society were manuals containing tracts of proved 
value, especially of denominational interest. Endeavor was 
made, beginning in 1835, to place a copy of such a Baptist 
Manual in the home of every family in the Mississippi Valley. 
The real “ volume enterprise” was begun in 1839 by the pub- 
lication of a single book in each of three departments: Booth’s 
“Reign of Grace,” doctrinal; Backus’ “Church History,” 
historical, and “‘ Memoirs of Distinguished Christians,” bio- 
graphical. There followed in 1840 two books on baptism (de- 
nominational controversy was very much alive), one on 
“ Modern Infidelity,” two Sunday-school books, and “ Pilgrim’s 
Progress.” A Baptist Family Library, and a Baptist Sunday- 


[ 26 ] 





HARVEY E. CRESSMAN, Business MANAGER 


ay 
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4 
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Reorganization and a Merger 


school Library were projected in 1842, and volumes in these 
two series began to appear the next year. At this time also 
arrangements were made with Gould, Kendall and Lincoln 
for the preparation and joint issue of a Baptist hymn-book, 
“The Psalmist,’ which appeared in 1844, the Society owning 
two sets of plates and paying a royalty. Six thousand copies 
were quickly sold by the Society, and 25,000 by the Boston 
publishers, the book being received as the standard Baptist 
hymnal. A summary of publishing work in the years 1840- 
1844 showed a total of bound volumes, 34,750; of pamphlets, 
5,000; of tracts, 266,573 copies. The Society put into circula- 
tion in that time 102,000 bound volumes, of which 25,000 
were of its own publications. 


Beginnings of Publications for Foreign-speaking Peoples 
Demands for books had become so pressing that the Board 
borrowed $2,400 as capital to enable more adequate response. 
Not only theological and controversial writings but also stories 
for Sunday schools were put forth. An “Indian Hymn- 
book,” in the Tuscarora language, was issued in 1846. The 
Society had already aided Baptist missionary work abroad—in 
Burma (1829), Germany (1832), and other countries in 
Europe—by gifts of money directly from its own funds or 
solicited from friends, and now renewed its interest in the 
labors of J. G. Oncken, of Germany, by acting as agent to col- 
lect and transmit funds for his publishing work, some of the 
Society's own publications seeming peculiarly valuable, after 
translation, for the purposes of Baptist evangelization. But 
this Indian hymnal was the first instance of a kind of work 
which grew in magnitude and variety—the issuing of books 
and tracts in languages other than English for the use of popu- 
lations on American soil. It was followed by publications in 
French and German in 1849, when the second hymnal, “ The 
Baptist Harp,” also appeared. Works in Dutch and Swedish 
were added in 1854. ‘The occasions for publications in these 


[ 27 | 


The First Hundred Years 


Oona OO \<mwoee 








languages were real enlargements in the Society’s activities. 
Books and tracts in German, for instance, were made neces- 
sary by the employment of a German, David Rothen, to work 
among his own people in Ohio, the Ohio State Convention 
and the Society uniting to pay the small salary of $200; the 
material to be used by the worker must naturally be in German. 
Publications in Swedish were required when the Society began 
to employ colporters among the Swedes in the United States 
and in their own country. 


A Book Editor Appointed 


The Corresponding Secretary of the Society had been 
charged with the burden of editing publications in addition to 
his other duties, but with the increase of this department of 
the Society’s business the burden became too great, and the 
Board appointed (1849) a Book Editor, the Rev. J. Newton 
Brown, whose coming meant not only relief to the chief execu- } 
tive officer but immediate improvement in the style of the 
books as well as increase in the number of issues—eighteen 
new publications in 1840, sixteen in 1851, forty-three in 1852, 
seventy-nine in 1853. Thirty-six of the books issued in 1853 
were Sunday-school books; more than doubling the number 
in the catalog. The rapid growth in the quantity of publica- 
tions is indicated in the following table: 


TRAO2TSAG Hs ae net ae eae Oe Gar ee ee 
TRACI SEOs seas vsneey ery el aa e c 
T8t0-1855 .....--.- 107,587,800 pages 


For this three causes were assigned—the appointment of 
an Editor, the Ten Thousand Dollar Fund, the increase of 
sales due to removal to the Arch Street Depository, all of 
which occurred in 1849-1850. Other reasons were that sev- 
eral thousand dollars of the unemployed building fund were 
temporarily loaned for publishing purposes, there were good 
manuscripts available, and the colporter force was increasing. 


[ 28 | 


WYStI OF Wey, WoL 


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191096 VIO ‘I9IBIING “f BART “AOITE AN “YM PISTY “OYA Peapy 


SoLIe 


YAOVNVWA SSANISOG FHL UNV 
AYVLANOUS AALLNOAXA AHL JO AOMAO TVA VLadOds 








Reorganization and a Merger 








New tracts were issued, and old numbers were kept in stock. 
But attention and means were devoted increasingly to pro- 
viding book literature. The tract had to take its place in a 
larger scheme of publications. As in the earlier years a group 
of tracts of proved value in English had been brought to- 
gether, so in this decade and a half the beginnings of Baptist 
tract literature for foreign-speaking peoples were made. 


Periodical Publications 


The periodical publications of the Society in this period were 
few in number. The Baptist Record, successor of the Tract 
Magazine, was changed in September, 1840, from a semi- 
monthly to a weekly paper; the circulation at once increasing 
rapidly, to 3,100 copies. It was dependent on gratuitous edi- 
torial service of city pastors to save it from bankruptcy, but 
proved a valuable means of communication with the churches, 
especially in Pennsylvania. In 1842 the circulation was larger 
—3,300—and the paper was self-sustaining; but subscriptions 
fell off—2,700 reported in 1844—and a committee recom- 
mended that it be placed under the responsibility of some in- 
dividual publishing house. Its weekly issue ceased in January, 
1846, and a quarterly Baptist Record, distributed gratuitously, 
took its place. By 1853 twenty-six thousand copies had thus 
been issued. 

The Sabbath School Gleaner was a monthly magazine for 
children, begun in 1841. How long it lived does not appear. 
Doctor Brown, in his history of the first three decades of the 
Society, did not think the Sunday-school periodical of suffi- 
cient importance to give the thread of its story a place in the 
web of progress. The little paper witnesses, however, to the 
Society's endeavor to fulfil its function as a Sunday-school 
union. It is one of the features of the beginnings. Doctor 
Brown does record that copies of other Sunday-school papers, 
published by the New. England Sunday School Union, were 
circulated from the Society’s Philadelphia depository. The 


[ 29 | 


The First Hundred Years 


Sunday-school purpose was being served by the best means 
at hand. 


A Register of Baptist Statistics 


In 1833 the Society issued a Baptist Register of denomina- 
tional statistics which, it was purposed, should be an annual 
publication. But the expense and the failure of the people to 
respond with subscriptions made the project impossible. The 
next issue of the Register (1836) bore the name Triennial, 
but was not finally freed from deficit on the costs of $1,382.26 
for the 2500 copies until 1838, and the Society’s officials felt 
not at all encouraged to carry out the new plan of an issue 
every three years. However, the claims of service to the de- 
nomination were even more strongly felt, and in the list of 
proposed new publications suggested by the Board in 1839 
appears an ‘“‘ Evangelical Almanac and Baptist Annual Reg- 
ister.”” This annual first appeared in November, 1841, and 
had a continuous history until 1868, when it was succeeded by 
the American Baptist Year-Book. The first issue contained 
statistics “ hastily gathered and consequently inaccurate.” Of 
the edition of 8,350 copies about 7,000 were put into circula- 
tion. In 1843, 12,000 copies were sold. ‘This publication, like 
the Year-Book of today, contained brief reports of the anni- 
versaries of the national Societies. This fact is important for 
any historian of the Publication Society, as the reports of the 
Society and of its Board were, for some unknown reason, not 
printed and published in full for the six years 1847 to 1852, 
and the only material available to Dr. J. Newton Brown when 
he was writing in 1855 and 1856, were the condensed reports 
in the ‘‘ Almanac” and in the Quarterly Baptist Record, and 
files of the latter are no longer in the Society’s possession. 


Colportage Work 


Of striking importance was the system of agents to convey 
the literature published and handled by the Society to the door 


[ 30 ] 





DANIEL GURDEN STEVENS, Pu. D., Book Eprror 
DOROTHY R. HORMANN and LYDIA J. DUNNING, Assistants 





Reorganization and a Merger 





of every Baptist Sunday school and as far as possible to every 
home where a Baptist agent might call. To these traveling 
agents the name colporter—literally, neck-porters—was given. 
The Society was the first to apply the name and adopt the 
system in religious work. Lack of funds prevented prompt 
and large development. As the report of 1843 pictured the 
situation, 

There needs to be (at the least) an average of two or three efficient col- 
porters in each State of our Union, who with an ample supply of these 
publications, should visit every church, every Sunday school, and every 
family in the land, and who shall not be dependent on their sales for their 
maintenance, but who shall receive salaries as missionaries, and be 
accountable for the sales they effect; while each one. should be authorized 
to give away (within certain limits) where he discovers that the Cross of 
Christ could be promoted by this course. 

This was the picture. What was the reality? ‘ Very little 
colporter agency, for want of stock to supply, and funds to 
support, the colporters.” At first, the men received a commis- 
sion on sales; ministers doing itinerant service, like Methodist 
circuit riders, were used in this experiment. Twenty men were 
in service on this plan in 1845. Slowly another plan gained 
place. The colporter was employed fora part of the year ona 
definite salary, and the percentage on sales was also used to 
help support him if necessary, or, after incidental expenses 
were met, was placed to the Society’s credit. In 1851 there 
were 27 “colporter missionaries,” in seven States, besides 
Canada and Oregon, working among the Germans, Dutch, 
Irish, and French; the salary of each of these men being $150 
a year. he next year there were 34, in eleven States, and in 
Oregon; and two funds of $2,500 were established, the inter- 
est to be used in supporting one such missionary. Of course, 
the annual interest would not avail for the purpose today, but 
it is interesting to know that the interest on one of these funds, 
which has been faithfully applied to the purpose prescribed, 
has amounted in the course of the years (up to 1924) to about 
$9,000. It was suggested that ministerial students might well 


[ 31 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


give some time to colportage, thus obtaining a practical experi- 
ence which would stand them in most welcome stead when they 
entered upon settled pastorates. Of sixty-two colporters under 
appointment in 1854 thirteen were students in vacation-time ; 
and in 1855 thirty-four out of 114 were college students. At 
the close of 1855 sixty-nine men were under commission, 
thirty-five being sustained by funds specially designated. At 
last the idea was making effective appeal to the denomination. 
Nearly all of the Society’s colportage ‘‘ was bestowed on waste 
and desert places,’ and “ was, strictly speaking, a preaching 
institution,” most of the men being ministers. The work was 
not limited to America, but in 1855 was extended to Sweden 
under a plan prepared by the Society’s colporter, Andreas 
Wiberg, the Foreign Mission Society not being able to under- 
take the mission. 


Donations 


While the Society has always studied economy, for many 
years under the stern master necessity, and always from a 
sense of obligation to the denomination, its economies have 
never meant any one’s private profit, but have always been 
aimed to make possible larger work of publication and dis- 
tribution. And while distribution has been effected in a very 
large degree through sales as a measure of necessary economy, 
these sales have had their part in enabling the Society to make 
increasing donations of its issues. 

The story of the years from 1840 to 1856, on the one hand is 
of slowly growing capital, but on the other of rapidly increas- 
ing beneficence. In 1843 the new Corresponding Secretary, 
J. M. Peck, issued a circular announcing as the paramount ob- 
ject of the Society, ‘‘ to make our denomination, and all others, 
over whom we have influence, a reading, thinking, working, 
and devotedly religious people.” To this end the first measure 
proposed was the gratuitous distribution of religious publica- 
tions “as widely as possible among the destitute in our own 


[ 32 | 


SNOILVIITANG IOOHIG AVONNG ‘AaIH)-NI-MOLICY 


‘d ‘d ‘NAO “DO NANO 








Reorganization and a Merger 
aE aE SL Sl 
and other lands.’” Mr. Peck had himself already been instru- 
mental in effecting large distributions of tracts in the Missis- 
sippi Valley. In 1844 he reported that thirty-four destitute 
ministers in the Western Valley received libraries. A con-: 
spicuous feature in Annual Reports is that of grants of libra- 
ries to Sunday schools and to ministers, of aid in money to 
Germany, France, and China to enable publications of needed 
literature in those countries, of books and tracts to Canada, 
West Indies, France, Assam, Burma. 

A letter from San Francisco, dated September 1, 1847, reached the 
Society after being one year on the way, requesting a donation of Sunday- 
school books. Books were at once granted, and sent around Cape Horn. 


They reached California just as gold was discovered, and formed the first 
Sunday-school library ever used in California. 


From the first interest on the Ten Thousand Dollar Fund in 
1849 appropriations were made to California and other desti- 
tute sections. Headquarters evidently took a pride in the mat- 
ter of grants, feeling that thus the Society’s object was being 
happily achieved. There was a committee on distributions— 
men with hearts bigger than the funds: 

On hearing the appeal [so runs the record in the Report of 1854] eyes 
that do not often weep are moistened—an order follows in a choked utter- 
ance, “Send him Fuller’s Works, the Baptist Commentary, and Encyclo- 


pedia of Religious Knowledge, and if there is nec money in the funds, 
charge me.” 


Anonymous generosity in the Board often supplemented the 
limited income available. 


A Historical Department 

The Society’s concern to perform adequately its work as 
the denomination’s servant found another fine expression late 
in this period in the organization of what was purposed to be 
a historical department, but which was formed as a distinct 
society. The intent was that the department contemplated 
should collect and preserve “all documents elucidating our 
denominational history ” and to publish 


[33 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


such papers and volumes as may shed light upon the rise and growth of 
Baptist churches and the progress of Baptist principles throughout the 
Union. One of the ultimate aims of such an organization should be to 
secure’a complete reliable history of the denomination, from the days of 
the Apostles. 


Such was the recommendation of the Board, which was 
enthusiastically endorsed by the Society, and the so-called 
department was formed, May 5, 1853. It sustained, however, 
an anomalous relationship to the Society, by reason of the fact 
that it had its own constitution, Board, officers, and member- 
ship. It.was not a department, nor was it exactly independent, 
for its Board and officers were appointed, its annual reports 
were printed, and its library room was furnished by the Publi- 
cation Society. For ten years this state of things continued. 
Then the department declared its independence, which the 
Publication Society acknowledged. But not all connection 
was broken off. It is expressly provided that the Correspond- 
ing Secretary of the Publication Society and the Chairman and 
the Recording Secretary of the Board of Managers shall be 
ex-officio members of the Board of the Historical Society. 
Should the Historical Society decide to cease its functions to 
the denomination the Publication Society would be its legal 
heir: Most friendly and helpful relations are maintained. The 
income of the Historical Society has often been very small, and 
in years which would have seen it without funds for the bare 
essentials of its existence the Publication Society has gener- 
ously come to its aid, and has also provided office room wfthout 
rental, as Crozer Theological Seminary freely provides place 
in its library building for the valuable collection of the His- 
torical Society. 

The Historical Society has a small endowment, yielding an 
income far from sufficient to pay necessary running expenses. 
Of late, the denomination, through the New World Movement, 
made provision such that it has become possible, not only to 
employ the stenographer and the assistant to the Librarian 
(who himself, like the other officers, serves without salary) in 


[ 34] 





J. SHERMAN WALLACE, D. D. 
Epitor, YOUNG PEoPLE’s PUBLICATIONS 





Reorganization and a Merger 








cataloging the collection of historical materials, but also to bind 
valuable files of papers, and the Society has been enabled to 
make some purchases of matter that will be worth more and 
more to the denomination in years to come. 


Absorption of the New England Sabbath School Union 


Even before the reorganization of the Society an amalga- 
mation of the New England Sabbath School Union was sug- 
gested, and this was definitely in mind as a consummation to 
be achieved when the Publication Society entered upon its 
work. At the Sunday School Convention, held April 30, 1840, 
in New York City, the Committee which recommended that 
the Baptist General Tract Society become a general publishing 
society, made further recommendation that this union be 
effected. But the second recommendation was not adopted. 

The New England Sabbath School Union was itself the 
result of the merger of two New England organizations for 
much more than local, for national, Sunday-school service, 
naming among its objects (1) the publication of books suitable 
for Sabbath schools, (2) the circulation of such books in New 
England and in the South and West, (3) to insure the per- 
manency and increase the efficiency of Sabbath schools where 
they already exist, and (4) the establishment of schools wher- 
ever favorable locations demand them. 

Here now were two national societies in the same field. 
Appeals came from both to the same constituency. The New 
England Union had perhaps the initial advantage. It enlisted 
the confidence and support of great laymen and ministers. 
The Publication Society, as has been seen, had no small diffi- 
culty in capturing the imagination and winning the practical 
aid of the denomination. 


Two sets of agents crossed each other’s path, or, peradventure, met at 
the same place on the same errand, and for that reason more than any 
other, were both unwelcome; while on the other hand, two sets of colpor- 
ters met on the same field. 


[ 35] 


The First Hundred Years 


The situation demanded mending. In 1848 the Society’s 
Board made overtures for union which were regarded with 
favor by the Board of the Union. Correspondence followed, 
and by the spring of 1850 negotiations seemed within sight of 
a pleasing conclusion. But even then failure befell. It was 
not until 1855 that a renewal of negotiations was suggested 
by persons who had knowledge of the inner affairs of the 
Union. It appeared that the Union had already sold its entire 
stock to a private publishing house. But this firm was com- 
posed of men who favored the plan of union. So the Board 
of the Society was able to purchase in 1856, 
at the appraisement of a commitee of disinterested persons, the stock of 


plates, engravings, copyrights, etc., and to embrace the New England Sab- 
bath School Union as part and parcel of the Publication Society. 


Well did J. Newton Brown say that the union formed a new 
epoch. This is the last word in his history. It discovers the 
Society on the threshold of a new era of expansion and service. 


[ 36 J 





MITCHELL BRONK, Pu. D. 
Epiror, ADULT PUBLICATIONS 





iil 


A GENERATION UNDER GRIFFITH 


1857-1893 





“Preeminently a Sunday School Society.”—Ben- 
jamin Griffith. 


“ Emphatically a family and Sunday-school mis- 
sionary Society.”—Report of the Board in 1874. 


“The Bible work of Baptists should be done” in 
the homeland “ by The American Baptist Publication 
Society.”—Decision of the Bible Convention at Sara- 
toga, New York, 1883. 








NATHANA L. CLYDE, Epiror, Wrex-pay Lesson TExtTs 
SUSANNA G. FISHER, Eprror, “ YoutH’s Wor tp ” 


t's 
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4 
Fe 
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It 


With the year 1857 came the dawn of a new era for the 
Society. Perhaps it did not look like dawn to the watchful 
men at headquarters. Resignations of important officers (the 
treasurer and the depository agent) and of two Board mem- 
bers, and the loss by death of true and able friends, had devel- 
oped a sense of weakening change. . The acquisition of a little 
capital had made the need of more stand out in clearer view. 
The growing work required increasing contributions from the 
churches. The Business Department was embarrassed by 
reason of advances of cash made for missionary work, and 
liabilities had been increased by purchase of the stock of the 
New England Sabbath School Union. To crown all, the 
country was in the grip of a serious financial panic which meant 
embarrassment for the business of the Society; and on the 
horizon were portents of the Civil War. The time was one 
of trouble and of darkness. | 

None the less a new era was dawning. 

Ihe history of the Society is biography, a story of men. 
A most notable chapter was opening. 

Benjamin Griffith, a member of the Board since 1852, was 
called to the secretaryship. In the first century of the Society’s 
service the average term of office of the principal executive 
officer has been six years. But this executive was to occupy 
the position for more than the lifetime of a generation. He 
was to have opportunity to originate plans, to try them out, and 
to correct them in the light of experience. Added to the in- 
fluence of his personality and to the effectiveness of the abili- 
ties which he developed, was the advantage of his family con- 
nections. He was related by marriage and by friendship to 
families which proved some of the ablest and most generous 


[39 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


contributors to the support and enlargement of the Society’s 
work. Perhaps it should not be said that because of him the 
names of Crozer and of Bucknell were written large in the 
power and usefulness of the Society. It was well indeed for 
the Society and its work that the executive secretary had to 
sustain him a Board of which these men were representative, 
and well also, that they knew him so intimately and believed 
in him so thoroughly. There was a future of strength and 
effectiveness for the Society because of an accumulating wealth 
of personality that was investing itself through this organiza- 
tion. For forty-nine years William Bucknell served as a 
member of the Board, twenty-three years as chairman. His 
active connection dated from 1841. At the time of his death 
in 1890 it was recorded of him that he was the largest single 
giver to the Society. His name is mentioned here because he 
is a capital instance of the growing personal interest, confi- 
dence, and devotion which meant a new day was at hand 


in 1857. 


Administrative Features of the Griffith Era 


The first striking feature of the Griffith era was administra- 
tion. The centralization of power in him as executive is 
impressive. ‘‘ The Corresponding Secretary was made also 
editor, publishing agent, depository agent, and. assistant trea- 
surer.”’ This meant direct knowledge and command of the 
departments and of the whole work of the Society. It was an 
expedient to meet an emergency. Certain readjustments of the 
varied work of the Society became elements of a permanent 
order. ! | | i 

A complete separation.of the Business and. the Missionary 
Departments was effected. Each had its own set of books, 
and kept its own accounts, both departments reporting to the 
Corresponding Secretary as the executive head. This arrange- 
ment has prevailed. ever since. 

. The whole system of colportage was carefully revised. The 


[ 40 ] 





ANNA EDITH MEYERS, Missionary Epiror 





A Generation Under Griffith 








need for the colporter—to carry religious books to doors they 
would not otherwise enter, to press this literature upon the 
people’s attention, to sell where he can and to give books gratis 
where there is inability to purchase—was stated afresh. But 
renewed emphasis was given the spiritual nature of the col- 
porter’s business, that he is not a book-pedler, but a man of 
God, intent on saving souls; a “suppletory missionary ’— 
so he is defined in the report of 1858—that is, “ he reaches a 
class that is not and cannot be reached by ordinary means of 
PrAces; 

The work was put and kept on a business basis. In all the 
years of the Society’s service its strictly business hand has 
helped with vigor its hand of benevolence. But this meant 
ofttimes something other than strictly business. For instance, 
in 1860 it was reported that the total receipts from the churches 
for all the benevolent purposes of the Society, during the pre- 
ceding eight years, had been $86,949.68. But in the same 
eight years the Society expended in benevolent work $113,- 
887.79, or $26,938.11 more than it had received from the 
churches. “ Where did this sum come from? From the busi- 
ness; and to its great detriment.” It was customary then as 
it is customary today when ready money is needed for the 
_ benevolent work, to advance the necessary funds out of the 
business treasury; then later, when the benevolent department 
has not wherewith to pay, the accumulated debt is frankly for- 
given. 

But this draining the business for the support of colportage cannot be 
continued . . . the churches must take care of colportage. . . It is proposed 
to conduct the business, as heretofore, on strictly mercantile principles, and 
at the end of the year divide the net profits, if there are any, giving one- 


fourth to the colporter work, and adding the other three-fourths to the 
book capital. 


Finance and Buildings 
The determination of the Corresponding Secretary to build 
up a publishing business worthy of the denomination was 


[ 41 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


seconded not only by the Board’s vote and moral support but 
by the liberality of its members. John P. Crozer and William 
Bucknell provided, in 1861, the cost of enlarging the building 
at 530 Arch Street, in all, $8,866.75, on condition that other 
friends should add $6,000 as capital for the business. ‘The 
opening of the Civil War brought great depression in business, 
and the Society’s receipts declined over $28,000; but so well 
were affairs managed that the total liabilities at the end of the 
year were but $1,025.96. Conditions grew better, receipts 
increased year by year, and the report of the year 1865, at the 
close of the war, jubilantly declared, “It has been the most 
prosperous year the Society has ever known.” A grievous loss 
was the death of John P. Crozer, highly esteemed for himself 
no less than for his good works. But his works failed not at 
his passing, for in 1866 his family, possessed of his spirit, 
erected a missionary memorial to his name in the gift of a 
fund of fifty thousand dollars, the income of which should be ° 
devoted to certain benevolent objects specified by the donors. 

The increase in receipts became marked in the decade fol- 
lowing the war. In the decade 1855-1864 the receipts in the 
Benevolent Department were $165,634.82; in the Business, 
$509,429.02. While in the decade 1865-1874 the income for 
benevolence was $588,521.96, and in the business, $2,276,- 
158.56. The day of more adequate equipment of the publish- 
ing arm of the denomination had come. 

The quarter of a century spent in the first real home on 
Arch Street was a time of development. Opportunities and 
responsibilities for work increased. The churches were look- 
ing to the Society for larger things in fulfilment of its functions 
as a Sunday-school union and a colportage Society, as well as 
a publishing house. The Society responded with a vastly 
increased and much more diversified output. Thus it outgrew 
its quarters. It had depended largely upon other firms for 
the manufacture of its publications, making contracts where 
advantage seemed to lie. About 1860 there was a composing- 


[ 42 ] 





J. EUGENE REED, Assistant Epiror, ADULT PUBLICATIONS 





A Generation Under Griffith 


room in the Arch Street building where the type was set; but 
then the work had to be sent out for stereotyping and printing. 
Experience indicated that a complete plant in the Society’s 
own building would mean a great gain. But there must be the 
building. The movement to secure it originated with William 
Bucknell who gave an initial subscription of $25,000, one- 
fifth of the total subscription that was first proposed. Later, 
seeing that the original conception of the necessary building 
was far too small, he doubled his gift, and his generosity was 
matched by that of the Crozer family. Altogether the Buck- 
nell family contributed $77,550, the Crozer family $92,000, 
some eighty-seven subscribers $59,257, and the sale of the 
Arch Street property brought $29,779. Mr. Bucknell’s gift 
of $50,000 was in bonds, his only condition being that the 
Society should give away annually, in its own publications, a 
sum equal to six per cent. interest. The bonds greatly depre- 
ciated in value a few years later, whereupon Mr. Bucknell, a 
princely spirit, redeemed them for cash, saving the Society 
from loss. 

Of the buildings formerly occupied as headquarters scanty 
description is given in the old records. But the structure at 
1420 Chestnut Street into which the Society entered on Feb- 
ruary 29, 1876, was obviously a delight, for lengthy detail of 
its accommodations and equipment were given in the annual 
report of that year. The pride and satisfaction of the Cor- 
responding Secretary and the Board can still be felt by the 
reader whom the word picture conducts through the interior, 
from the engine and press-rooms and the storage vaults for 
stereotype and electrotype plates in the basement, through the 
store, the ministers’ parlor, the counting-room and the shipping 
department on the first floor, the assembly-room and offices on 
the second floor, the folding, trimming, and binding depart- 
ments on the third, to the office of The National Baptist and 
the rooms of the Historical Society on the fourth, and the 
composing-room, the desks of the proof-readers, and the un- 


[ 43 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








bound stock of publications on the fifth floor. It was a Joy, 
this building and its equipment. Not all was at first the prop- 
erty of the Society. The printing-plant was still the property 
of a private firm which had been employed to do the heavier 
presswork. But in 1886 the Society purchased all the ma- 
chinery and was its own workman in its own house. 

The dream which earlier Boards and Agents and Corre- 
sponding Secretaries had dared to dream had at last come true. 
The Society had money and means with which to serve. 

In 1874 came the first gift of a kind that has become impor- 
tant in the course of the Society’s second fifty years—annui- 
ties. It sometimes happens that persons who wish to make 
gifts for the furtherance of the Society’s work are not in posi- 
tion to devote both principal and income of their money while 
they live. They therefore enter into an agreement whereby 
they are assured of a certain annuity, which ceases at the death 
of the annuitant. The first fund of this character was of 
$5,000, on which the donor made an initial payment of $I,O10 
in 1874. In ten years the total of annuity funds reached 
$108,000. After this large additions came more slowly, and 
it was not until the beginning of the last decade of the Society’s 
century that the growth of annuity funds became a matter 
of moment. 

The total receipts reported in 1850, at the end of the first 
year of Doctor Griffith’s administration, were, in the Benevo- 
lent Department, $14,972.17, and in the Business, $42,146.21. 

In 1876, in the Benevolent Department, $62,028.82, and in 
the Business, $490,364.83, were the totals, over four times as 
much for benevolence, and nearly twelve times as much return 
for business; while in 1893-1894, the year that Doctor Griffith 
died, the Missionary Department received in all $127,649.91, 
and the Society did a gross business amounting to $497,807.48. 
Clearly, in the second third of its first century, the Society had 
advanced far from the conditions of weakness and uncertainty 
which still hung about it at the close of its first three decades. 


[ 44 | 





EMMA L. BROWN, Epiror, “ Younc PEopte ” 
FRANCES FORMAN, Fitine SEcrRETARY 





A Generation Under Griffith 





But why was this annual support made so generous, and 
why was it possible to do so large a business? Of course, 
the denomination itself was becoming more powerful and 
better able to provide for the agents of service it had created. 
But more than that, this agent had a growing efficiency and 
had been commissioned to do bigger tasks upon which it had 
entered with wonted readiness to bear burdens and to perform 
responsible offices. In its great lines of work surprising 
advances had been made. 


The Sunday School Union of Baptists 


From the time of the reorganization in 1840 there had been 
earnest effort on the part of the Society to develop Sunday- 
school work. Progress was slow. There was a disabling 
lack of funds, of full and accurate reports of conditions and 
needs, and also, as modern workers would remark, of a knowl- 
edge of child psychology and of pedagogical method by which 
has been made possible so well-devised and complete a fur- 
nishing of Sunday-school supplies in the twentieth century. 
But those early workers were feeling their way along with a 
purpose that would not be denied its goal, even in the face of 
difficulties that arose in large part from a constituency which, 
to say the least, was not practically sympathetic, for though 
not wholly unfriendly to the Sunday-school idea, the churches 
could not see that they were standing in the way of their own 
progress when refusing to give so much as Sunday-school 
statistics as a part of church reports. 

In 1853 the Board of Managers suggested what would 
amount to a systematic survey of the Sunday-school field of 
the denomination, to be repeated annually. The publication 
of a paper as an organ of communication with the schools all 
over the country was seen to be a pressing need, which for- 
tunately it was soon possible to meet. For among the publica- 
tions which were acquired by the merger, in 1856, of the New 
England Sabbath School Union with the Society, was The 


[45 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


Young Reaper, which appearing for the first time with the 
imprint of the Publication Society in January, 1857, speedily 
gained favor, so that in June of that year fifty thousand copies 
of this monthly were printed, and in 1861 the average issue 
was of one hundred thousand copies. 

The organization of new schools became one of the great 
endeavors of the Society, and as early as 1857 the colporters 
were able to report the formation of one school for every 
week in the year. 

Then was provided, in 1859, a series of question books to 
secure ‘“‘an intelligent and established membership ” and to 
advance ‘‘ the cause of truth ” ; three of these were catechisms, 
four: were intended for beginners’ departments, and thirteen 
for ordinary Sunday-school and Bible classes. The ideas of 
religious education and of graded publications were evidently 
not wanting. . 

In 1866, the Society responded to a call for more and better 
fruits of the work of a Sunday-school union by earnest inquiry 
how to increase its efficiency. The immediate results were: 
A thorough reexamination of the library books it had been 
publishing—stories adapted to convey moral, religious, and 
denominational teachings—and the discarding of such as did 
not conform to carefully formulated standards of character 
and usefulness; more vigor in the endeavor by colporters to 
establish new schools; the employment of Sunday-school mis- 
sionaries; the conversion of The Young Reaper into a semi- 
monthly (circulation 130,000), and the production of such 
requisites as secretary's and librarian’s records. ‘The next 
year, at the Society’s anniversary, the able report of George 
F. Davis on what the Society was doing and was able to do 
was a convincing argument that there was no occasion for 
another organization to enter the field. 

In 1868, the Society offered five premiums of $500 each, for 
five Sunday-school books of marked worth. Two lesson 
papers, Bible Lessons, were issued in 1869; and in January, 


[ 46 ] 





MARGARET CLEMENS and EVA MAE JOHN 
Epirors, CHILDREN’S PUBLICATIONS 


.. 
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bela! Das tea 
“ ¥) ie at 


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he “Ser 
Toles Re ; 
he at 
heute es 
pee e 
i oe - 


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~~» 


$ 





A Generation Under Griffith 








1870, Lhe Baptist Teacher, one result of a Sunday-school 
convention, held in St. Louis, in November, 1860, began to 
appear, attaining at once a circulation of 18,000. The So- 
ciety's Bible Lessons were an anticipation of the uniform 
lessons in The International Series, which now began to 
be urged. 

A standing committee on Sunday-school and Bible work 
was created in 1871, and a Sunday-school secretary was 
appointed, the Rev. Warren Randolph, who entered upon his 
work with a generous breadth of understanding of what 
should be done in the Sunday-school field, as can be seen upon 
examination of the survey of work proposed which he sub- 
mitted to the board. It is too long to be quoted here. It is 
noteworthy that he recommended the organization of workers 
into State Sunday-school conventions with local auxiliaries, 
the gathering of all information possible in regard to Sunday- 
school work, the securing of an adequate number of teachers 
whose competency should be insured by training in conven- 
tions and institutes, the furnishing of necessary aids and helps 
to teachers and schools, the development of practical Sunday- 
school benevolence. 

In 1876, when the Society entered its new headquarters at 
1420 Chestnut Street, it was issuing seven periodical publica- 
tions: one was a literary and theological review, suspended in 
1877; another a denominational weekly for the family; the 
other five periodicals were designed for the Sunday school, 
meeting, as well as could be done in those days, the needs of 
all classes, from the teaching force to the youngest people. 
In 1881 there were nine periodical publications for the Sunday 
school, indicative of thoughtful effort to provide material 
adapted to the most closely graded schools of the times. The 
Robert Raikes Centenary in 1880 had quickened the schools 
themselves, and the Society had greatly enlarged its work, 
recording an expansion greater than in any other year of its 
previous history. The year 1884 marked the accomplishment 


[ 47 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








of further improvements to the lesson helps and the addition 
of new publications. It was recognized “that each natural 
grade in the Sunday school has its appropriate teaching ma- 
terial.” How excellent was the provision of material may be 
remarked from the fact that for half a century the names of 
some of these publications were household words, and the 
circulation of the periodicals attained and held heights indica- 
tive of the worth that had won favor, and of the unceasing 
care that worth should not decline. 


The Bible House of the American Baptists 


The report of the first annual meeting of The Baptist Gen- 
eral Tract Society, held in Washington, February 28, 1825, 
speaks of Bible work as one of the “ leading designs” had in 
mind by the Society. But after that first word no more is 
found on this subject in the records for many years. [Even 
when the plans of the organization underwent such signal 
enlargement in 1840, and the publication of books was 
definitely begun, still there was silence as to the Bible. Allow- 
ance must be made, in judging the earlier years, for the absorb- 
ing interest in tracts which, as was said at the time, could 
enter where the Bible could not; allowance, also, for the con- 
tinual lack of funds, acutely distressing in 1840 and in the 
years immediately following, when new work cried out to be 
done. The opening of colportage work in 1841, however, 
made it possible to observe the dearth of Bibles in many homes, 
and presently the Book of books was included in the literature 
which was sold or given away. 

In 1856 the report noted that ‘among the families visited 
by our colporters within the last two years, no less than 4,746 
were found without a Bible.’ Grateful acknowledgment was 
made of 


a grant of Bibles and Testaments from the American and Foreign Bible 
Society to the amount of two hundred dollars; thrice that amount could 
be advantageously distributed annually by our colporters. 


[ 48 | 





ELIZABETH A. SHUFF and ELEANOR SAYRE, Orrice SEcRETARIES 





A Generation Under Griffith 








Bible work at first meant only distribution of the Scriptures. 
But happenings were in progress which were to bring to the 
Society a definite denominational commission for a larger 
service. 

The necessity of publication of the Bible by a Baptist house 
under Baptist care arose in 1837. The American Bible So- 
ciety refused to appropriate funds for the printing and circu- 
lating of translations of the Scriptures made by Baptist mis- 
sionaries in India, in which the words relating to baptism were 
rendered by those equivalent to immersion. Thereupon Bap- 
tists organized the American and Foreign Bible Society to aid 
in printing and circulating the Scriptures in various languages 
and dialects of the East. With few exceptions all the Baptists 
in America united in its support, so that at first it made rapid 
progress. But at the annual meeting in 1850 a majority of the 
Board of Managers recommended that the Society engage in 
the revision of the English Scriptures. This recommendation 
was rejected. As a result many supporters withdrew and 
formed The American Bible Union, whose object was “ to 
procure and circulate the most faithful versions in all lan- 
guages of the world.” These two organizations each pro- 
ceeded to follow their chosen lines of work, the Bible Union 
addressing itself particularly to the revision of the English 
Bible, though accomplishing also a similar work with the New 
Testament in Spanish and Italian. 

There were now two Baptist Bible Societies in the field, and 
The American Baptist Publication Society as well. It was 
felt that a consolidation should if possible be effected. At a 
convention in New York, May 1o and 11, 1859, called for the 
purpose of inquiring into the expediency of consolidating or 
reconstructing the benevolent societies of the denomination, 
it was voted that the union of The American and Foreign Bible 
Society with The Publication Society under the direction of 
one Board in Philadelphia would be productive of efficiency 
and economy in the issue and distribution of the Scriptures 


[49 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








and other. evangelical productions. This resolution was re- 
ported to the Publication Society at its meeting in 1859, and 
was referred to the Board. It was found that legal difficulties 
seemed to make the proposed union impracticable, but the 
matter was not regarded as finally closed. In 1865 overtures 
were made by the Board of the Publication Society, but this 
second effort at union failed. In 1866, the Society, deploring 
this.outcome of the negotiations, but not construing the failure 
as a bar to its own operations, voted that 

the work of printing and distributing the Bible is appropriately a part of 


the work’ of this Society, as is expressed in the second article of the 
constitution, 


and authorized the Board 


so to enlarge its plans and means of operation, that it may be the denomi- 
national organ for this work in the home field, 


but, in 1867, approved the Board’s wise delay to comply with 
this instruction. In 1869 the Society amended its charter so 
that in statement of its object specific mention should be made 
of the Bible “as its first means of promoting evangelical re- 
ligion.” In the same year, and in 1870 and 1871, negotiations 
with the Bible Society were renewed, without securing the 
union, but with the effect that the Publication Society entered 
more earnestly upon the work of Bible distribution, depending 
for the development of this feature of its activities upon funds 
specifically donated for Bible work. In 1880 the gift of $5,000 
was reported, the principal to form the nucleus of a Bible dis- 
tribution fund, the interest to be applied in supplying Bibles 
and ‘Testaments to the poor. Discussion went on in the de- 
nominational gatherings and in the press. In 1881 there was 
remarked “ the prevalence of a positive, deep-seated, and eTow- 
ing conviction”’ that the Publication Society was the proper 
agency to conduct the Bible work of the denomination in the 
home field. In response to this the Society approved the de- 
cision of the Board 


[50] 





SAMUEL G. NEIL, D. D., BrsLte anv FieLtp SECRETARY 
LINDA DEARMOND, Orrice SECRETARY 
MARGARET C. GUY and VARENA B. HILL, Assistants 


Swe te 
Eve : 





A Generation Under Griffith 








to push with vigor all departments of Bible work upon the home field, 
including the circulation of the Common Version of the Scriptures, and 
the publication and circulation of new translations, in so far as money 
given specially for that purpose will enable the Society to do. 


Discussion in the denomination, became more general and 
heated, till finally at the General Baptist Bible Convention of 
the United States, held in Saratoga, N. Y., on May 22 and 23, 
1883, it was voted that 


the Bible work of Baptists should be done by our two existing Societies— 
the foreign work by The American Baptist Missionary Union, and the 
home work by The American Baptist Publication Society. 


As instructed by the Bible Convention the Society now set 
up a Bible Department with a Secretary. In 1885 one Secre- 
tary was designated to serve the Bible and Missionary Depart- 
ments, and that arrangement continues to this day. 

The Society took up with earnestness the work committed 
to its trust by the Saratoga Convention. Not only did it con- 
tinue to issue the translations of The American Bible Union, 
but committed the New Testament revision to representatives 
of Northern and Southern seminaries, and in 1891 brought out 
a translation of this portion of the Bible, which has often 
received high commendation for its felicity and its faithful- 
ness to the original. 

The revision of the Old Testament, already begun by the 
Bible Union, was also committed to competent men for com- 
pletion, but full accomplishment of this work was not had until 
two decades after the death of Doctor Griffith. 


Colportage Work 


From 1845 the increasingly prominent feature in the annual 
report of the Board was colportage. This appears not only 
in the large space given to excerpts from the reports of the 
men in the field, but also in the emphasis laid upon this right 
arm of the service by the executive heads of the Society. 


[ 91] 


The First Hundred Years 


Colportage work by the Society was already in progress in 
Sweden when Doctor Griffith came into office. It is interesting 
to note that a tract published by the Society was the means of 
gaining for the Baptist cause the man most conspicuous in 
this work. ‘‘ Pengilly on Baptism” was sent to Germany at 
the request of Doctor Oncken, and a copy came into the hands 
of Andreas Wiberg, a Lutheran minister in Sweden, and led 
him to become a Baptist. He came to America and was first 
employed by the Society as a colporter among his countrymen 
in New York, but was eager to carry out plans for work in 
his homeland, where a “ conventicle act ”’ had brought legalized 
persecution to bear upon all who dared separate from the State 
Church, and especially upon preachers, but the press was free, 
and therefore colportage was the strategic move. Mr. Wiberg 
prepared literature, writing a notable book on baptism, and 
translating tracts and books. In 1855 he was sent out by the 
Society, and was soon supplied with helpers. The Rev. C. F. 
Hejdenberg whose suffering under persecution had greatly 
stirred the Society, had already established four churches, and 
there were 300 baptized believers. At the close of 1856 there 
were 21 churches and 961 communicants. In 1866, when the 
Society transferred the mission to the Missionary Union there 
were 176 churches, 6,606 communicants, and nine associations, 
and the work had spread into Norway. The Society had sent 
duplicate sets of plates and tracts in Swedish to Mr. Wiberg, 
and had spent $26,000. Later, in 1882, responding to a call 
from the Swedish brethren for aid in inaugurating and con- 
ducting a publishing and colportage work, the Society em- 
ployed the Rev. Jonas Stadling who in three years laid the 
foundations of the Swedish publication society. 

From 1872 to 1877 the Society conducted a mission in Italy, 
having W. C. Van Meter under commission as a Bible and 
Sunday-school missionary. His methods were in part those 
of a colporter, but he also set up training-schools for Christian 
workers to prepare Italians to work among their own people. 


[ 52] 





THE FIRST COLPORTAGE AUTOMOBILE EQUIPMENT 
Sent Out By THE AMERICAN Baptist PUBLICATION SOCIETY 
Cotporter D. B. Warp Carryinc His Books 1n His HAnp 


oP yy A 
Cia we 


ae 





A Generation Under Griffith 


Lack of funds compelled abandonment of this mission. Special 
contributions enabled a similar undertaking in Turkey and 
Armenia, from 1883 to 1891. In 1883 two colporters labored 
in Mexico. 

As already shown, the beginnings of the Baptist denomina- 
tion in Central Europe were rooted in mental and spiritual 
soil that gained character from the literature of the Publication 
Society. J. G. Oncken, himself an example of the value of the 
Society’s tracts in establishing the mind in Scriptural ways 
of thinking, from 1832 till infirmities of age compelled his 
retirement forty years later, was steadily in touch with Phila- 
delphia, receiving aid from the Society in carrying forward 
a Baptist publishing and colportage work in his own land. In 
1878, Dr. Philip W. Bickel was sent by the Society to put on 
a basis of strength and permanency the work Doctor Oncken 
had so ably carried on. Doctor Bickel gave eight years to ser- 
vice as General Manager of the Baptist Publication Society at 
Hamburg, reorganizing the business to new effectiveness. The 
Foreign Mission Society then assumed care of the undertaking. 
New fields of home work were entered as occasion required. 
As conditions in the population of the country changed, the 
Society studied to meet them with men and means. During 
the Civil War men were employed among the soldiers and also 
among the freedmen in States where they could be reached. 
Large quantities of literature were sent to camps and hos- 
pitals, and thousands of dollars were expended in work among 
the Negroes. The interest aroused in the Negro race is re- 
flected in conditions prescribed for the administration of one 
of the largest single funds ever given to the Society. The 
Society was a friend in need to the South at the close of the 
war. Asa Southerner has testified: * 


With unstinted hand it gratuitously supplied hundreds of schools, both 
of the whites and of the blacks. Hundreds of Sunday-school libraries 


wo. Bs FE. Riley,’ D..D.,.“S History of Baptists in the Southern States East of the 
Mississippi,” p. 295. 


[ 53 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


also were furnished in the same spirit. For more than fifteen years this 
work was prosecuted by the Society alone in the States of the South. 
Coupled with this was a colportage and missionary system under the 
auspices of the Publication Society. 


Baptists of the South were generous supporters of the Society 
in the days of its infancy. Their investment was now repaid 
with interest, not as a debt, but in the same spirit of unselfish 
Christian interest which in that earlier day had prompted 
their own gifts. 

The number of colporters often seemed too small. Efforts 
were made to build up a larger body of the highly esteemed 
workers. Associational colportage—one colporter within the 
bounds of each Association in the country—was proposed in 
1868, the Society to aid the Associations that were of them- 
selves unable to support the men. ‘The ideal was noble. Per- 
haps the State Conventions and the Society may yet be able 
to work it out. The emphasis that came to be placed on em- 
ployment of Sunday-school missionaries in the decade from 
1871 to 1880 lessened the number of colporters, only fourteen 
being on the list in 1880, but on recommendation of Doctor 
Griffith, the list showed 119 men in forty States and Terri- 
tories. 

One of the most striking advances made in this period was 
in the aids given the colporter for the transportation of him- 
self and his burden of literature. At first, and for many 
decades, such a man was what his name implies, a neck-porter. 
Dr. L. C. Barnes estimates that in the century the men in the 
Society’s employ must have walked a million miles or more, 
along forest trails or prairie paths or city streets, in blazing 
sun and biting blizzards. Sometimes the literature was borne 
in a basket on the arm. The horse and the saddle-bag came 
next; and the gig or buckboard and two-horse wagons, such as 
the men themselves might be able to provide. Here was a hint 
of things to come, but no change in the equipment of the aver- 
age colporter came in this period. But a sudden great leap was 


[ 54 ] 





A GROUP OF CONVERTS IN CONNECTION WITH CHAPEL-CAR MEETINGS 
AT PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA 


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‘yyy ae 
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a eet 





A Generation Under Griffith 








made in taking some few of the men from foot or horse and 
putting them in a chapel on wheels on the railroads of the 
land. Dr. Wayland Hoyt, riding with his brother Colgate, a 
railroad man, in the latter’s private car through northern Wis- 
consin and Minnesota, suggested the building of a missionary 
car to give the lonely and destitute communities an oppor- 
tunity of hearing the gospel. Boston W. Smith, a worker of 
the Society, was called into conference. A plan of the pro- 
posed car was drawn. A “Chapel Car Syndicate” was formed 
in Wall Street, and on May 23, 1891, Chapel Car No. 1, 
Evangel, was dedicated. The worker thus equipped brought 
into a community his home, a church, the preacher, the litera- 
ture, and other essentials so that colporter-missionary-evan- 
gelist work could go forward with advantages of unusual 
advertising and independence of local conditions. Thus the 
chapel-car feature of the Society’s service came into being, one 
of the most effective in quickening personal and denomina- 
tional interest and contributions as it has proved practical and 
efficient in meeting the needs of large parts of the country in 
more than three decades. Of course, only a few workers could 
have such equipment; the number of cars must necessarily be 
limited. Provision for the greater number of colporters waited 
a few years more. 


Recorder of the Denomination’s Advance 


The Baptist Almanac, which first appeared in 1841, was 
published faithfully for twenty-seven years, containing regis- 
tration of statistical matter, limited in quantity to be sure, but 
invaluable to the historian. The desire to furnish something 
more adequate was never lost, however. There was always 
the memory of a service which perhaps antedated appreciation. 
The volumes of the Register of 1833, 1836, and 1852 were at 
hand to spur the Society’s officers to renewed trial of a larger 
plan. In 1867 the Society by resolution instructed the Board 
to publish annually a 


[55] 


The First Hundred Years 


Baptist Hand-Book, containing as complete a statistical review of the 
state of the denomination as can be obtained, with a condensed report of 
the denominational anniversaries, a statement of the benevolent and edu- 
cational operation of the denomination, reports of the operations of the 
several State Conventions, general Associations, alphabetical lists of Bap- 
tist ministers, with their P. O. address, and such other information appro- 
priate to such a work as they may be able to obtain. 


Accordingly in 1868 appeared the American Baptist Year- 
Book which has been maintained as an annual publication 
ever since. | 

In 1863 The American Baptist Historical Society, which 
had been established as a Historical Department of the Pub- 
lication Society, was recognized as an independent organiza- 
tion. The provision that the Publication Society should have 
three ex-officio representatives on the Historical Society’s 
Board of Managers is witness to an unceasing interest in the 
function of conserving the records of the denomination, an 
interest which has proved itself real, not simply in the atten- 
dance of these men at Board meetings, but in the gift of funds 
to maintain the work, and in numerous publications which find 
their justification on the ground of service rather than on that 
of financial return. A review of the earlier book titles shows 
a wealth of Baptist historical and biographical works. In fact, 
the publications of the Society are in themselves a history of 
the denomination’s progress. The thoughts, the concerns, the 
self-expressions of the Baptists of America, are set forth, not 
alone in the more serious books and pamphlets—histories, » 
theologies, commentaries, biographies, tracts for the times— 
but also in fiction, even stories for Sunday schools. In the 
decades of Doctor Griffith the literature issued by the Society 
showed the trends of Baptist thinking and the means by which 
it was sought to meet the needs of the times. 


[ 96 ] 





CHAPEL-CAR AUTO No. 1 
CRAWFORD MEMORIAL 


Pe en. 
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Hs hi 





IV 
THE CONSUMMATIONS OF A CENTURY 


1894-1924 





“Tt has been the most adaptable of all national 
organizations. It has proved to be more than a great 
publishing concern; even more than a widely influen- 
tial educational agency. It has ever been evangelistic 
and missionary.” 


“With our denominational growth, the develop- 
ment of our country, and the marvels of the century’s 
discoveries, the Society has measurably kept pace. 
From serving afoot, on horseback, in covered wagons, 
the motor-boat, the automobile, and the chapel-auto, 
even to the latest and greatest medium—the radio; 
for on the Sunday preceding our hundredth anniver- 
sary, the story of the Society was broadcast from coast 
to coast.”—T. J. Villers, D. D., at the Northern Bap- 
tist Convention, Milwaukee, Wis., May 29, 1924. 








WILLIAM E. CHALMERS, D. D., Secretary or ReELIcious EpucATION 
ELIZABETH M. FINN, Speciat Fretp WorkKER 
JENNIE C. LIND, Orrice Secretary 





IV 


The passing of Doctor Griffith on October 24, 1893, was to 
have been expected; none the less the Board seems to have 
been taken by surprise, and was not able to lay its hand at 
once upon a suitable successor. A committee of administra- 
tion conducted affairs for six months till April 2, 1894, when 
Colonel Charles H. Banes was elected Corresponding Secre- 
tary. A man of great ability, deservedly trusted and esteemed, 
and familiar with the operations of the Society, he seemed an 
ideal choice, but his business engagements called with an im- 
perative voice, so his period of service was brief. On his 
resignation, A. J. Rowland, D. D., who had been a member of 
the Board since 1875, and a writer of Sunday-school lessons 
and editor of important periodicals, was elected his successor, 
entering upon the work February 1, 1895, and serving until 
1917, his being one of the longest terms of office in the first 
century of the Society’s history, exceeded only by that of 
Doctor Griffith. Since his retirement two men have held the 
position of Corresponding Secretary. 

Developments of extreme importance have marked the last 
third of the Society’s first hundred years. | 

First in time at least is the completion and maintenance 
of the Society’s own printing-house. In Doctor Griffith’s last 
years a fund was reserved for the erection of such a building. 
In 1896 this plant was completed and occupied—the present 
Judson Press Building, at Juniper and Lombard Streets, a 
noble structure, six stories in height, one hundred feet from 
the ground to the eaves, with floor space of 50,000 square feet, 
thoroughly equipped with the best up-to-date appliances for 
printing and publishing, and housing not only the manufactur- 
ing departments, but the departments of distribution as well. 


[99 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








Each machine is equipped with individual motors, the elec- 
tricity coming from generators in the plant. Five complete 
periodicals are produced every second. A book of three hun- 
dred pages can be printed in less than ten minutes. 

It was providential that this building was nearly in readiness 
for its purpose early in 1896, for in February of that year, a 
fearful disaster befell in the destruction by fire of the much 
prized headquarters at 1420 Chestnut Street. Originating 
next door the flames ate quickly, consuming not only the 
building but many records and historical collections, both of 
the Society and of its child, the Historical Society. ‘The 
emergency brought into high relief the energy and efficiency 
of the Society’s officers and workers. There was no interrup- 
tion in business. Temporary offices were opened near-by, a 
printing-house was subsidized, orders were filled from stock 
held at the branches, books and periodicals were reprinted from 
plates rescued from the debris. No appeal was made to the 
denomination for help, the Society, even in the hour of its 
greatest catastrophe, adhering to its policy of never asking 
the churches to pay its business debts, and at the same time 
shouldering the burden of deficits in its missionary department. 

A new, much larger structure, known as the Crozer Build- 
ing, was erected on the same site, at 1420 Chestnut Street, at 
an expense of $550,000. This was occupied in 1898, but in 
1906, on account of the great increase of land values in the 
immediate neighborhood, it was deemed wise to sell, and to 
erect a new building elsewhere. The Society took temporary 
quarters on Chestnut Street for about two years, and then 
occupied, in 1908, its present headquarters building, The 
Roger Williams Building, 1701-1703 Chestnut Street. 


The Northern Baptist Convention 


Like the other national Baptist organizations of the North 
the Publication Society was profoundly interested in the for- 
mation of the Northern Baptist Convention, which was de- 


[ 60 | 





SELDON L. ROBERTS, Director or LEADERSHIP TRAINING 
MILDRED E. ADAMS, Lisrartan, Reticious EpucATION DEPARTMENT 











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The Consummations of a Century 








signed to bring unity and cooperation where formerly had 
been competition for constituency and support. It united 
heartily in the call for the preliminary convention at Wash- 
ington which resulted in the new organization of Northern 
Baptists, and its Corresponding Secretary made one of the 
two set addresses favoring and urging the plan. As one of 
the five cooperating organizations within the Convention, the 
Publication Society has received new commissions of great 
importance which in a very true sense are denominational 
authorizations for enlargement of the work it has been carry- 
ing forward throughout its long history. 


Religious Education 


In the very beginning of its years the Society manifested a 
keen interest in young people, and sought to meet their needs 
by literature provided especially for them—both papers and 
books. After 1840, Sunday-school library books in increasing 
numbers were issued, and from the first publication of The 
Young Reaper by the Society in 1857 papers in variety adapted 
to the ages and degrees of attainment of the boys and girls 
were assured. The chief object of the Society, as stated by 
one of its statesmen Secretaries, J. M. Peck, is to make the 
denomination, “and all others over whom we have influence, 
a reading, thinking, working, and devotedly religious people.” 
The idea and the ideal of real religious education have been 
alive and effective within the Society all through its decades. 
Therefore it was necessary that it should become a Sunday- 
school society, in the language of Benjamin Griffith, preemi- 
nently such. That is, it should shape its efforts to make 
approach to the young people and establish educational rela- 
tions with them. Therefore, in the van of the young people’s 
movement in the last decades of the nineteenth century were 
the Society’s leaders. The Society, through Doctor Griffith, 
called a convention at Chicago, and lent itself in every possible 
way to further the working of the elements which had issue 


[ 61 | 


The First Hundred Years 


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—oooooeeOOOOeeoeeeeeeoooooeeeoooooooe_e_e_ooo_oo 


in the formation of the Baptist Young People’s Union of 
America in 1890. When this organization became financially 
embarrassed, in 1909, the Publication Society enabled it to pay 
its debts by purchase of its stock and good-will for the sum of 
$20,000. In January, 1909, 1n response to overtures of the 
Baptist Young People’s Union of America, arrangements were 
consummated whereby it was agreed 

that the Young People’s Union should “transfer its educational and 
organizing work to The American Baptist Publication Society which shall 
then create a Department of Young People’s Work, it being understood 
that the B. Y. P. U. of A. shall continue as an organized body with such 


functions as may be agreed upon by the B. Y. P. U. of A. and The Ameri- 
can Baptist Publication Society. 


On February 9 the Executive Committee of the Northern 
Baptist Convention approved the transfer in a resolution which 
was submitted to the Northern Convention on June 26 and 
adopted, as follows: * 

Resolved, That, with the conviction that the whole matter of education 
in our churches needs careful consideration and readjustment, under 
existing circumstances, we recommend that the Executive Committee of 
the Northern Baptist Convention approve of the proposed arrangement 
between the Baptist Young People’s Union of America and The American 
Baptist Publication Society by which the educational and organization 
work of the Baptist Young People’s Union of America is transferred to 


The American Baptist Publication Society on the basis of the Philadelphia 
agreement. 


The Publication Society organized, therefore, a Department 
of Young People’s Work. Already, in 1907, the Society had 
established a national training institute for Sunday-school off- 
cers and teachers. The plan was to conduct the work some- 
what on the Chautauqua lines, offering a scheme of study in 
Sunday-school pedagogy, the Bible, general church history, 
and Baptist history and doctrine, with certificates and diplomas 
on the completion of the course or courses. The necessary 
literature was provided. In rort, the Young People’s Work 


t Annual of the Northern Baptist Convention, 1909, Pp. 57. 


[ 62 ] 





THOMAS S. YOUNG, D. D., Direcror oF VAcAaTIoON CHURCH SCHOOLS 
AND WEEK-DAY CHURCH SCHOOLS 


MILDRED E. ADAMS, Orrice SEcRETARY 


Brana cannons 


rece 





The Consummations of a Century 


and the teacher-training work were combined under one de- 
partmental secretary, who was asked to unify the educational 
work of the Society and to enlarge it as the needs of the 
denomination might require. The Northern Baptist Conven- 
tion, at its meeting in Des Moines, in 1912, welcomed “ the 
effort of the Society to unify the educational work of the 
church, Sunday school, Baptist Young People’s Union, and 
mission-study class.’’ The changes that were instituted were 
signalized not only by a change in title of some of the Society’s 
field workers—no longer “ Sunday School Missionaries ” but 
“ Directors of Religious Education ’’—but by the erection of 
more exacting standards of fitness, applying both to the field 
men and to the assistants of the secretary in the divisions of 
the department. 

New divisions have been added as needs have been discov- 
ered, and methods have been developed, as, for example, that of 
Daily Vacation Bible Schools. These schools originated among 
Baptists—in the Epiphany Baptist Church, New York City, 
July, 1898. Dr. R. G. Boville, of the New York City Baptist 
Mission Society, took the lead in putting the method into wide 
use. In 1914, the Northern Convention instructed ‘ The Pub- 
lication Society to look into the advisability of caring for a 
more systematic development of the Daily Vacation Bible 
Schools.”” In 1915, the Convention voted that 
this work be commended to the consideration of The American Baptist 
Publication Society and that the Social Service Commission be authorized 


to make such arrangements with the Society as may be desirable for the 
promotion of this important educational and social work. 


The Society entered upon the new work with its accustomed 
vigor, but after all, only as part of a much broader plan— 
an element in a growing scheme of week-day religious educa- 
tion. At present the department’s activities cover teacher- 
training, church vacation schools and week-day religious 
education, Sunday-school work for New Americans, training- 
school promotion, children’s work, Sunday-school advisors, 


[ 63 ] 


The First Hundred Years 
Se 
and correspondence courses for workers and ministers. Coop- 
erative relations are maintained with State Conventions and 
the Standard City Mission Societies. 


Social Education 


With tract No. 2, named in the catalog of 1826 as * Dwight 
on Drunkenness,” the Society entered with definite decision 
upon social service. Perhaps no such description of the pur- 
pose would have been given then, but it fits what was done by 
that tract and by a book in 1830 (the earliest book with the 
exception of volumes of tracts ever handled by the Society— 
the plates being obtained from another publisher), which borea 
title characteristic of the times, ‘“‘ Wisdom’s Voice to the Rising 
Generation on Intemperance,” quite as well as it describes the 
work done by the Social Service Department in helping to 
secure adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1918 and 
1919, or in securing law enforcement in 1924. Certainly the 
discerning minds of leading men in the Society saw the rela- 
tion of its work to “ social evils’? in 1839, calling them by 
this name: 


How absurd the infatuation which would hoard treasures for a future 
generation, when the problem is yet to be solved whether the leveling 
spirit of infidelity shall not ere long break down the barriers of law and 
order and revel in the possession of these accumulations which, if earlier 
and more faithfully used, would have cured these social evils. : 


Practical Christian effort is the logical outcome of the religious 
education the Society has been carrying forward—justice in 
the church and in society. 

New emphasis upon the social spirit of the gospel began to 
find organized expression in America some thirty years ago. 
A number of Baptist leaders in the ministry and in the schools 
were active with voice and pen to push the social contents of 
the gospel into prominence. At the first regular meeting of 
the Northern Convention in Oklahoma in 1908, by resolution 
a standing committee on social service was appointed, and year 


[ 64 ] 





MEME BROCKWAY, GenerRAL Director oF CHILDREN’S WORK 
MARION GRAY, OFFICE SECRETARY 


ae 
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« 





The Consummations of a Century 








by year has made report of its study and of progress in the 
churches and in the world. In May, 1912, at the meeting held 
in Des Moines, the Convention adopted a resolution authoriz- 
ing its committee to make with the Publication Society such 
arrangements as seemed desirable for carrying on social ser- 
vice work. In the following September, a Department of 
Social Service and Brotherhood was created. 

The growing interest in social service has made necessary 
the recognition of two distinct but supplementary aspects of 
the work, that of education and that of application. The first 
part belonged naturally to the Publication Society ; the second, 
by agreement, was undertaken by the Home Mission Society, 
which created, in 1919, a Department of Social Service and 
Rural Community Work to deal especially with the country 
church and rural life, but also to study city conditions and to 
develop community churches. The Publication Society then 
reorganized its social service work, and has given special atten- 
tion, first, to interpret the social ideal as contained in the Scrip- 
tures and especially in the life and teachings of Christ, and 
secondly, to study the social needs of men with a view to dis- 
cover the deeper meanings in the unrest of the world, and to 
suggest some of the changes that are necessary that there may 
be a more truly Christian social order. By literature and by 
living speech the results of the study are spread, not only 
among Baptists, but in wider circles, for the department coop- 
erates with other denominational and interdenominational 
agencies that are working toward the same great social goals. 
With the Society’s Department of Religious Education the 
Secretary of Social Education collaborates in providing courses 
in social education and service in institutes and assemblies; to 
the Department of Sunday School Publications he furnishes 
articles bearing upon the various forms of social service and 
courses for Sunday schools. As temperance legislation is 
ahead of temperance education, and a most serious situation 
has therefore developed in the country, the department, in 


[65 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








cooperation with similar departments of other religious bodies, 
is devoting much time and energy to develop an informed and 
active conviction and conscience that will make the people more 
thoroughly, more practically, sympathetic with the best ideals 
in law. 


Sunday School Publications 


In 1884 the Society recognized that “ each natural grade in 
the Sunday school had its appropriate teaching material,” and 
endeavor was made to supply that which fitted the different 
erades, with excellent results. But the ideal waited for the 
outcome of further discerning study and for cultivation of a 
demand. Series of graded lessons were introduced—the 
Blakeslee Lessons and the series issued by the Chicago Press, 
eventually known as the Constructive Bible Series. ‘The sup- 
port of the International Sunday School Association was given 
the idea in 1908. The Society's editor of Sunday-school 
publications furthered the advance by establishing in 1909 the 
Keystone International Graded Series. It was found impos- 
sible to cooperate with a syndicate, for no arrangement 
could be made that would permit Baptist editorship, and 
it was the Society’s belief that the lesson treatment should not 
be merely upon educational, but preeminently upon evangelical 
lines. The aim was to provide lessons which recognize for 
children, as well as for older people, the necessity of the work 
of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, and which teach fully and 
clearly the fundamental facts of the gospel. Neither labor 
nor expense was spared through the years, the Series not being 
completed until 1917. Then began a work of revision and 
rewriting. The department itself was thoroughly reorganized 
and put upon a most thoroughly modern basis, with a new 
eroup of editors with whom were associated specialists in 
the age groups they were asked to serve. Some old publica- 
tions were discontinued, several new ones were inaugurated. 
A New Keystone Series of International Graded Lessons was 


[ 66 ] 





SAMUEL ZANE BATTEN, D. D., Socta, Epucation SECRETARY 
ANNIE L. MACLAUGHLIN, Orrice SEcRETARY 





The Consummations of a Century 








begun, and at the present writing is approaching completion. 
The courses already issued are conceded by specialists in re- 
ligious education to be the best closely graded material. A 
series of Judson Training Manuals is also in progress. Week- 
day and Vacation School Courses have been provided. The 
Department keeps its product in conformity with the most 
recent results of study of child life and Sunday school peda- 
gogy, and adapted to secure five great advantages for Baptist 
schools: (1) To perpetuate Baptist doctrines; (2) to strengthen 
Baptist churches in holding these doctrines; (3) to promote 
the enterprises of the denomination; (4) to provide and pre- 
pare Baptist leaders for the denomination; (5) to cooperate 
with every Christian force in forwarding the kingdom of God. 


Colportage 


Some important changes in colportage were introduced in 
the last third of the Society’s first century. 

The first was in physical equipment whereby fields of work 
were made more readily accessible, and the worker’s energies 
were reserved for his real business with the people instead of 
being used so largely in transporting his burden of literature 
and himself. 

The chapel car has already been mentioned. In the nature 
of things there could be few of these churches on wheels. The 
conditions that made them necessary are passing; there are no 
longer so many new railroads of*great mileage with numerous 
new churchless towns to be occupied. But there was and is 
need for many conveyances, smaller and more mobile than 
the cars, to equip the average colporter and enable him to 
reach communities large and small, on or off the railroad. 

Therefore colportage wagons were provided. Some of the 
men at an early period had used horses and saddle-bags, or 
horse-drawn vehicles of some description. But in 1897, a 
two-horse wagon especially built to serve the purposes of a 
Sunday-school missionary and colporter was given to the Rev. 


[ 67 ] 


The First Hundred Years 





— 








E. M. Stephenson, in Plainwell, Michigan, who had conceived 
the idea and had enlisted the aid of some Sunday schools and 
a generous woman. A better wagon was obtained the next 
year. So convincing was the proof of practical usefulness that 
the Society at once rapidly multiplied the number of wagons. 
Within three years there were eighteen; by 1912, fifty-five 
were in service. The wagon carried the colporter’s bed and 
board and the material equipment for his work, making him 
ready for a stay of a day or a month, for a prayer-meeting, 
a Sunday-school convention or a protracted meeting, for gospel 
work by the wayside or at mine, mill, lumber-camp, or country 
school. In 1913, the automobile began to be used, and now in 
1924 has entirely displaced the wagon; it is interesting to note 
that in Latin America some Bible-workers are provided with 
mules. 

For some years, on waterways in regions on the Pacific 
coast, gospel cruisers were employed, large motor-boats built 
as floating parsonages and churches to enable gospel work at 
points on rivers and bays that were not accessible in any other 
way. But with the construction of good roads and bridges, 
the need for use of this picturesque but eminently practical 
method of colportage passed, and the boats were sold. 

The automobiles in colporter service are mostly Ford sedans, 
too small for a kind of work that has been found necessary. 
Something that should combine features of the chapel car with 
the mobility of an auto was required, and was provided, in 
1923—the auto chapel car. ? 

The interior equipment and furnishings consist of a driver’s seat for two 
people, a 50-gallon fresh-water tank and waste, a wardrobe and bookcase 
built into the frame, a couch heavily trimmed (convertible at night into a 
double bed) and covered with imitation leather, drawers for linen, etc., an 
awning over the rear platform which is used for preaching purposes, a 
washroom and toilet, also a three-burner gas-stove, and a folding-table. 
The rear section is so constructed as to be convertible from a bedroom 
during the night to a reception-room during the day, and is furnished 


with wicker chairs and other furniture. A specially constructed tent, 
30x60, to accommodate about one hundred persons, is a part of the auto 


[ 68 ] 





JOHN W. CLINGER, Apvertistnc MANAGER 
DOROTHY H. BOWMAN, Orrice SEcRETARY 





The Consummations of a Century 








equipment, the tent being so arranged that the rear of the chapel car auto, 
with its pulpit platform, can be backed into the end of the tent and become 
the pulpit platform inside. 


There is an Estey pulpit organ, a Coleman lantern lighting 
system, collapsible chairs, and every necessary convenience 
for the work of evangelism in lonely places. 

The second change affecting colportage was in inter-Society 
relations. 

Colportage has always been missionary work. Recognition 
that the colporters circulating literature were not mere “ book- 
pedlers "’ but real missionaries whose business was to bring 
the messages of the literature into contact with minds and 
hearts and have it issue in changed lives, brought increasingly 
hearty support of the Society's work. In 1846 so clearly did 
a corresponding secretary of The American Baptist Home 
Mission Society see the essential nature of colportage, that 
he called the Publication Society ‘“ the right arm of home mis- 
sions.’ In 1874, the report of the Board of the Publication 
Society reiterated the fact that this is 


strictly and eminently a missionary Society. Nor is its mission work the 
same as that of the other great missionary organizations. The Home 
Mission Society directs its efforts mainly toward the support of local 
pastors laboring with feeble churches. It does not employ colporters, or 
strictly Sunday-school missionaries. It is preeminently a church mis- 
sionary society, doing a vast, and a blessed work. This Society on the 
contrary, is emphatically a family and Sunday-school missionary society. 
Its work consists in three things: 1. In preaching the gospel from house 
to house by a band of devoted Missionary Colporters; who unite with 
personal efforts to convert the inmates, the circulation of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and the dissemination of a gospel literature. 

2. In sustaining Sunday-school Missionaries to form new schools, to 
strengthen and improve old ones, and to organize the forces of the dif- 
ferent States for efficient Sunday-school work. 

3. In making grants of small libraries to poor ministers and Sunday 
schools and of tracts to pastors, and to missionaries of other Societies 
and conventions. 


This was the understanding which guided the Society in its 
mission work for the generation that followed. Some misun- 


[ 69 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








derstanding arose, however, and a conference of representative 
committees of the Home Mission Society and of the Publica- 
tion Society was called in Philadelphia, on February 2, 1899, 
when a basis of agreement was reached, which was adopted 
by the Boards of the two Societies the same month. In this 
agreement the duties of the two Societies were defined as 
follows: 

(1) That The American Baptist Home Mission Society shall continue 
its distinctive work of preaching the gospel, organizing churches and 
Sunday schools in connection therewith, settling pastors, building meeting- 
houses, employing missionaries, and conducting educational work among 
the freedmen, Indians, Mexicans, etc., as heretofore. (2) That The 
American Baptist Publication Society shall continue its distinctive work 
as the Publishing and Bible Society of our denomination, and also its 
distinctive work of organizing and establishing Sunday schools and em- 
ploying colporters. (3) That The American Baptist Publication Society 
in continuing its chapel-car service, shall so far work in cooperation with 
the Home Mission Society as to consult with the general secretary or dis- 
trict missionaries of that Society in regard to fields to be visited and to 
refer, as far as practicable, to these missionaries the baptism of converts, 
the organization of churches, the settling of pastors, and the building of 
meeting-houses. (4) That in appeals for contributions, each Society shall 
emphasize its own specific and distinctive work. 


Later, after some years of study by committees of the 
Northern Baptist Convention, and long-continued discussions 
on the floor of the Convention, the Law Committee of the 
Convention advised (in 1918) that in its opinion 


the consolidation of The American Baptist Home Mission Society and 
The American Baptist Publication Society cannot be effected, and that 
the proposed consolidation be dismissed from further consideration. 


A Committee of Reference was appointed (in 1917) in con- 
nection with whose advice the Home Mission and Publication 
Societies should carry on their respective activities. On Octo- 
ber 23 and 24, 1918, a joint committee composed of represen- 
tatives of the Boards of the two Societies met in Philadelphia, 
and on the evening of October 24 the Boards and officers of 
the two organizations for the first time in all their history met 


[70 ] 





H. 


WATSON BARRAS, D. D., SupeRINTENDENT SALES PromoTION DEPARTMENT 
JOHN BERSCH, Fierp RepreseNnTATIVE 
ELIZABETH WHITAKER, Orrice SecRETARY 





The Consummations of a Century 








together, at the Union League Club, the Publication Society 
acting as host. After dinner the Boards adopted the report of 
their conference committee, covering the following sugges- 
tions: 


1. That the chief task of the Publication Society is religious education 
in the home, the Bible school, the church, and all related societies; it being 
understood that the plans for such education be made and carried out in 
cooperation with all national and State societies and agencies involved. 

2. That, in conjunction with the Home Mission Society, the Publication 
Society make the State Conventions and Standard City Mission Societies 
their legal agents on the basis of the chapter on “ Conditions of Agency 
in the Standards of the Home Mission Society.” 

3. That the Home Mission Society and the Publication Society unite 
in the support of the State Secretaries of certain as yet financially weak 
Conventions on the basis of their respective appropriations in these Con- 
ventions. 

4. That the Home Mission Society and the Publication Society have 
joint superintendents whenever such superintendency is necessary for field 
oversight. 

5. That the Publication Society make the Home Mission Society its 
agent in the oversight and direction of the missionary activities of all its 
colporters; that the payment of the salaries of such colporters from the 
income of trust funds shall be made by the Publication Society to the 
Home Mission Society as required, each requisition to contain a full state- 
ment covering the name, service, and the amount due each colporter 
covered by the requisition; that the colporter shall continue to perform 
the following tasks for the Publication Society: the selling of the Society’s 
books and literature, the promoting the circulation of its periodicals, and 
the distribution of Bibles and other literature; that in view of the double 
function of these workers they shall be known as colporter-missionaries ; 
that nothing in the points agreed upon shall be interpreted as in any way 
restricting the full and free development of the business department of 
the Publication Society. That it is specified by the Publication Society 
in committing direct supervision and oversight of its missionary and col- 
portage work to the Home Mission Society, it does so with the strict 
understanding that the Publication Society is the denominational agency 
for the work of religious education, such as Sunday-school and young 
people’s work, social service education and Baptist Brotherhood as defined 
in Suggestion 1. 

6. That the Publication Society transfer its specific social work, such as 
rural and urban social work which naturally grows out of the missionary 
task, with the consent of the Northern Baptist Convention, to the Home 
Mission Society, the particular delimitations to be determined from time 


[71 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


NN ———————————————————————————eeeeeee 


to time by a conference committee; social service education to continue 
a proper function of the Publication Society. 


Adjustment of the question as to the work of chapel cars 
was reached at a later date, to become effective May I, 1920, 
as follows: | 


I. Financial: 1. The salaries and personal traveling expenses of the 
missionaries on chapel cars are to be paid by the Home Mission Society. 

2. All expenses on account of repairs, up-keep, and transportation of 
chapel cars to be paid by the Publication Society. 

3. Property rights in the chapel cars to remain unimpaired in the Pub- 
lication Society. 

4. The cars to carry the names of both Societies, to indicate that they 
are cooperating in this service. 

Il. Personnel: 1. Appointments. Insomuch as the missionary in charge 
is not only responsible to the Home Mission Society for the way in which 
he carries on his work as missionary, but also to the Publication Society 
for the care and oversight of the chapel car entrusted to him; his appoint- 
ment to be a joint appointment and to be made only when both Societies 
are agreed to it. 

2. Reports to be rendered by the missionary in charge to the two Socie- 
ties jointly as may be required. 

Ill. Administration. 1. By the Societies: The chapel car and missionary 
in charge to be subject always to transfer to another State or to be with- 
drawn from service at any time by joint action of the Home Mission and 
Publication Societies. 

(1) In all questions as to the missionary aspects of the services to be 
rendered, the Home Mission Society to have primary jurisdiction, pro- 
vided only that such service be kept within the limits prescribed by the 
railroads and the conditions upon which they will grant special trans- 
portation rates for the cars. 

(2) In all questions involving the transportation of chapel cars the 
Publication Society to have primary jurisdiction and to conduct all deal- 
ings with the railroads, including those concerning such questions as to 
the nature of the service to be rendered, the kind of places to be served, 
the length of stop at a given place, and any other question that may affect 
in any way the railroads’ attitude with respect to the moving of chapel 
cars for us. Should the Home Mission Society, or any State Convention, 
desire to take up with the railroads any matter relating to a chapel car, 
it will do so through the Publication Society. 

2. By the State Convention: (1) The chapel car and the worker in 
charge to be put at the service of the State Convention while within the 
Convention’s territory and to ‘be under the immediate direction of the 
executive officer of the Convention. 


| 72 | 





WORKERS IN THE SALES PROMOTION DEPARTMENT 


iets UN 


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Hee eT Pied! ay 
P 8 et To 


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The Consummations of a Century 








(2) Requests for the service of a chapel car to be, made by executive 
officer of the Convention to the Joint Division Secretary in whose terri- 
tory the Convention is, the latter to forward the request both to the Home 
Mission and Publication Societies with his recommendation. 


In all of these discussions and conclusions it is evident that 
if any fault attached to the Publication Society, it was not that 
the missionary spirit was lacking, but that missionary zeal 

characterized its endeavors and that wise plans energetically 
- pushed by devoted men procured results of large moment for 
the spread of the denomination and the Christianizing of the 
country. Missionary, energetic, and efficient the Society may 
claim that its workers have proved themselves to be. 


Books 


In 1889 the task of revising and completing the work of 
Old Testament translation begun by the American Bible 
Union was committed to Professors B. C. Taylor, J. R. Sam- 
pey, W. R. Harper, and I. M. Price. Professor J. M. P. Smith 
revised the proof of Doctor Harper’s translation of Isaiah 
and the Minor Prophets. Progress was slow, and it was not 
until 1912 that the Improved Edition of the Bible, containing 
the work of these scholars in the Old Testament portion and 
that of Alvah Hovey, H. G. Weston, and J. A. Broadus, in 
the New Testament parts (first issued in 1891), finally ap- 
peared. Of the translation Professor Charles P. Fagnani, 
Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis in Union 
Theological Seminary, in an article in The Survey, dated July 
I, 1924, says, repeating the verdict of other scholars not con- 
nected with our churches, that it is “ perhaps the most satis- 
factory of any.” 

One might suppose that with this superb evidence of the 
desire of Baptists to have the Scriptures in the best possible 
English translation and of the competency of Baptist scholars 
to produce that which would meet the most exacting tests of 
worth, the Society would rest content. But in 1924, to sig- 


[73 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








nalize the completion of its first hundred years of work, the 
Society issued the Centenary Translation of the New Testa- 
ment, Volume I, containing the Gospels, appearing in Feb- 
ruary, followed in December by volume II, containing the 
remaining books of the New Testament. The translator was 
Mrs. Helen Barrett Montgomery, already widely known as 
a missionary executive, author, and platform speaker. De- 
signed to promote popular reading of the Scriptures, and to 
that end given a typographical dress that would assist the 
average reader to quicker grasp of the material, the trans- 
lation at once received very favorable comment from scholars 
who compared it with other modern, translations, and re- 
marked the more exact faithfulness to the original displayed 
in Mrs. Montgomery’s work. 

Work on the American Commentary on the Old Testament 
has been in progress. The two volumes containing the Penta- 
teuch stand in their final form. Many of the remaining parts 
of the Commentary have been issued in temporary binding, 
others are in type; only the failure of some of the denomina- 
tion’s busy scholars to send in their manuscripts delays the 
appearance of a group of exegetical helps to study of the Old 
Testament which the Society hopes will find the approval 
already given the splendid volumes of comment in the same 
series on the New Testament. 

In general church history and denominational history the 
Society has built up an admirable library, from the pens of 
Vedder, Newman, Riley, and others; thus has been more nobly 
accomplished the purpose that has been in mind through nearly 
all of the century, to put into circulation adequate printed 
records of the story of our people. Some of these histories 
have taken and hold high place as authoritative text-books in 
seminaries and other schools. In theology also the publica- 
tions of the last three decades have been of unusual interest 
and worth, as the names of the writers—E. H. Johnson, A. H. 
Strong, and E. Y. Mullins—suffice to make known. 


Berk 





TREASURER’S DEPARTMENT 


At the rear, from the left 
Ervin L. Rutu, Assistant TREASURER 
A. R. MarrHews, ACCOUNTANT, GENERAL FieLp DEPARTMENT 





The Consummations of a Century 


The Society has steadily kept in mind the commission to 
produce a book literature that will serve the interests of the 
denomination. Hence the large number of study-books for 
young people, and the teacher-training manuals—works on 
Christian evidences, Baptist history and doctrine and prin- 
ciples, the Bible and the monuments of the days when the 
Bible was being written, the life of Christ and the acts of 
modern apostles on the mission fields, church hymnals, and 
song-books for departments in the Sunday school. 

Our peoples of foreign speech have not been forgotten. 
Within the last ten years the Society has issued the New Tes- 
tament in Polish and Hungarian, the Gospels in Slovak, Polish, 
Hungarian, and Russian, and the Gospel of John in Bohemian 
and Ao Naga, the last named being a special limited edition 
bound in khaki for use by Naga soldiers from a Baptist mis- 
sion field in Asia on the front in the World War. The Rus- 
sian Bible came from the press in 1922, and the Bible in Hun- 
garian and the New Testament in Russian are being prepared. 
Hymanals in Polish and in Lithuanian have recently appeared 
and another in Slovak-Bohemian is planned. Tracts are issued 
in eighteen languages other than English. 

While a business organization must consider the probabili- 
ties of the market before embarking upon an enterprise, the 
Society has put service above financial returns, and not infre- 
quently issues books, not because a return in money is expected 
from the investment, but because it seems a real service may 
be rendered, and the loss is never taken to the denomination 
with an appeal that it be made good. The aim of the Book 
Department is to be the publishing agency of the denomina- 
tion, and during the last decade more and more of the printing 
of some of the national Societies as well as of the Northern 
Baptist Convention has been committed to its care. 

In 1919 the Society approved the following statement of 
principles adopted by the Board of Managers for the guidance 
of its Book Department: 


[75 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








This department seeks to serve the Baptist churches. It desires to have 
part in producing the books that will promote the best interests of the 
Baptist people and the kingdom of God. It wishes to serve the whole 
Baptist people. Baptists do not all think atike. Convictions differ. There 
are centrifugal tendencies. There are groupings of minds. It does not 
seem Baptistic that the Society should serve one wing of the people to the 
exclusion of another, or be a mouthpiece for one group and deny voice 
to another. Not everything that might be written should be published; 
offerings must be sifted; there must be a Publication Committee charged 
with this responsibility. But surely the great groups of our people may 
express themselves through their Publication Society. For the opinions 
thus expressed the Society should not be held responsible. Such publica- 
tions should be regarded as so many endeavors on the part of our people 
to have themselves understood and to understand one another. 

By these principles the Book Publishing Committee has been 


led in its decisions. 


Business and Finance 


In 1841, the Report of the Board closed with appeal and 
prediction : 


If the denomination expect the Society to prosper, and to effect .the 
object of its organization, a considerable amount of capital is required... 
When this is supplied, the operations of the Society will sustain them- 
selves, without making further demands upon the liberality of the 
churches, except for such free grants as may occasionally be called for... 
In this it differs from every other benevolent enterprise. Once liberally 
establish it, and it will perpetuate itself. 

The writer of those words could not anticipate to what 
largeness the benevolent, or missionary, work the Society— 
the portion of its work aside from that which may be called 
strictly business—would grow in eighty-four years, and how 
necessary would be great and yet greater endowments and 
annual contributions from the churches for colportage and 
Bible work and religious and social education. But he and 
his colaborers were men of business sense, and their prediction 
has been wonderfully fulfilled. The Society did receive capital 
—much of it from men on its Board who knowing intimately 
what the Society was doing, gladly invested themselves and 
their money to make it possible that more of the same sort of 


[ 76 | 





HEADQUARTERS BOOKSTORE 
Joserpu P. HucHes, MANAGER 





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The Consummations of a Century 





results should be achieved. And once the Publication Society 
was established as a business with a home and working capital, 
it maintained itself and perpetuated itself. It did more. In 
its first fifty years it gave to its missionary department 
$100,000. In the next twenty-five years, it gave $150,000. In 
its one-hundredth year, that is, in the single year from May 1, 
1923, to April 30, 1924, it provided for its own Bible and 
Field, Religious Education, and Social Education work the 
sum of $90,000 and gave $22,500 to the Woman’s American 
Baptist Home Mission Society, devoting for benevolent and 
missionary work in a single year a larger sum than it had been 
able to give in its first fifty years of struggle to have the de- 
nomination see the possibilities of the engine of usefulness the 
creative missionary spirit of American Baptists of the era of 
Judson and Rice called into being. And this large gift was 
made in a year when the business was providing for the final 
payment of a big mortgage the Society had been obliged to put 
on its building in the trying years of the World War! The 
men of 1841 “died in faith, not having received the things 
promised.” But that which they saw afar off has come to be. 

The fraternal interest of the Society in the establishment 
of Baptist publication houses on foreign mission fields has 
already been noted—in Sweden and in Germany, when Doctor 
Griffith was Corresponding Secretary. In 1909, the Board set 
aside $500 a year, the interest on $10,000, for the support of 
colporters in the Chinese Empire. In 1909, a donation of 
$3,000 was voted to assist the China Publication Society in 
the erection and maintenance of a new printing-house. ‘wo 
years later $500 was given to Doctor Ashmore to assist in 
publication of a Chinese Colloquial New Testament and $500 
to assist the China Baptist Publication Society in issuing Sun- 
day-school literature. In 1915, when the China Society 
through the Foreign Mission Society asked aid in stocking a 
book-store in Canton, $500 in stock was voted. All this from 
the funds of the Business Department. 


[77] 


The First Hundred Years 








There have been those who would refuse to the Publication 
Society the right to use the word “ missionary ’’ in description 
of any part of its work or any of its workers. Yet from the 
beginnings of its history, when in its feebleness it answered 
with help to Judson in Burma and Oncken in Germany, down 
through the years of growing strength when it placed Wiberg 
in Sweden and Van Meter in Italy, even to the last decades 
when some thousands of dollars of its Business Department's 
funds have gone to help in publishing and distributing the 
gospel word in China, it has worked hand in hand with men 
on the foreign field whose right to be called missionaries of 
the Cross all will gladly recognize; and the nature of its work 
in America is written large in the multitudes of lives it has 
touched with the message of redemption and in the Sunday 
schools and churches which owe their existence and worth to 
its men and its gifts. Whatever honorable descriptive name 
may be allowed or denied, it is sufficient to have had Judson 
testify to the usefulness of the tracts sent to him; to have 
Oncken’s word of appreciation, ‘ We cannot do without you ”’; 
to sit, as the writer sat, in churches which the Society’s colpor- 
ter Wiberg established in Stockholm, and hear the word of 
Christ freely proclaimed ; to have a secretary of The American 
Baptist Home Mission Society affirm that the Publication 
Society is ‘‘ the right arm of home missions ”’; to have passed 
means and materials to workers in the homeland and abroad; 
to be the instrument through which the Christian mind of 
brethren and sisters works a will to make Christ known; to 
know that the spirit of fellowship with the apostles of the 
Lord abides in the Society. The motive of cooperation with 
the missionary heart and hand of the churches in work all 
over the world—call that motive missionary, benevolent, what 
any one will—is the main-spring of action in the Board and 
the business side of the affairs these brethren supervise, no 
less than in the Bible, colportage, and educational work they 
direct. 


[ 78 | 








TELEPHONE EXCHANGE 


Tue Rocer WittiAMs BUILDING 
EDITH L. DEWEY, Operator 


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The Consummations of a Century 








The Society has prospered. The business of its first year 
showed receipts of $373.80; of its one-hundredth, receipts of 
$1,572,022.59. 

The Business Department has a capital of $1,917,889.53; 
the General Field Department has funds of various kinds 
amounting to $2,189,288.85. But the prosperity of the Society 
is the advantage of the churches. Every cent of profit beyond 
the amount necessary to provide adequate maintenance and 
extension of the equipment goes into the denomination’s work. 





V 


THE ROSTER OF THE CENTURY 


CS 


Ideals work when they draw men toward them- 
selves.—Shailer Mathews. 


O perfect life in perfect labor writ. 
—Sidney Lanier. 


Our children are born to higher destinies than their 
fathers; they will be actors in a far advanced period 
of the church and of the world. Let their minds be 
formed, their hearts prepared, and their characters 
molded for the scenes and the duties of a brighter 
day.—Youth’s Companion, 1827. 





OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT 
THE JupsoNn Press BUILDING 


From right to left: Hilmar Schneider, Superintendent; Fred C. Cook, 
A. D. Syckelmore, Assistant Superintendent 


Cost Accountant; 





Vv 


The history of the Society is the story of men. It can never 
be told in any adequate way except in terms of biography. 
It is much more than a tale of presses and print; it is a human 
interest story, warm with the heart’s blood, vibrant with the 
energies of men with a vision and with a will to make the 
dream come true. This was so of the earlier years when there 
was so pitifully little of physical equipment to which the 
Society’s name might be attached; it is so today when there 
are fine buildings and a wealth of material things to which 
men may point when the organization is mentioned and inquiry 
is made as to its place and worth. 

This is to say that the full, true story of the Society cannot 
be told. Were there space for all the biographies that might 
perhaps be assembled, something of the human factor in the 
making and maintenance of the Society would still elude, and 
with that unrevealed one could not feel that justice had been 
done. If names are given, if life stories are suggested, they 
are but representative. Not every stone in a building can be 
the corner-stone or have place in the facade. If the lives of 
some persons are written in books, the lives of others are writ- 
ten, with these, in the characters and deeds of men and multi- 
tudes, though there they are often so much less easily read 
that they seem to have been lost from record. 

Over six hundred names are mentioned in the following 
lists of officers of the Society, members of the Board of Man- 
agers, officers of the Board, and heads of departments of the 
Society's work. As will be remarked these are the names of 
those in what are esteemed the higher places of responsibility. 
How much longer the lists must be to include all who have been 
in the Society’s employ, and ought justly to be enrolled be- 


[ 83 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








cause they too have held responsible place and have filled it 


as discharging high trust! 


PRESIDENTS 


Obadiah Brown, D. D., 1824-1826. 

Poh pear? i. loZs. 

Elisha Cushman, D. D., 1828-1829. 

William T. Brantly, D. D., 1830-1837. 

George B. Ide, D. D., 1838-1841. 

Rufus) ‘Babcock: Jr... VD. 1842- 
1843. 

Joseph H. Kennard, D. D., 1844- 
1854. 

Hon. Mason Brayman, 1855-1856., 

Hon. James H. Duncan, 1857-1860. 

William Phelps, 1861-1871. 

Sansom Talbot, D. D., 1872. 


Hon. James L. Howard, 1873-1877. 
Samuel A. Crozer, 1878. 

George T. Hope, 1879-1881. 

E. L. Hedstrom, 1882. 

John H. Deane, 1883-1884. 
Samuel A. Crozer, 1885-1911. 
W. H. Doane, 1912. 

J. W. Brougher, D. D., 1913-1917. 
W. B. Riley, D. D., 1917-1918. 
W. G. Brimson, 1918-1920. 

F. H. Robinson, 1920. 

Levi S. Chapman, 1921-1923. 

W. H. Geistweit, 1923-1924. 


VICE-PRESIDENTS 


Adams, Seymour W., D. D., 1861- 
1864. 

Alderson, L. A., 1864. 

Anderson, Martin B., D. D., LL. D., 
1854. 

Arbuckle, C. N., D. D., 1922-1924. 

Armitage, Thomas, D. D., 1860-1895. 

Babcock, Rufus, Jr., D. D., 1840- 
1841. 

Bailey, A. S., 1840-1841. 

Bailey, Silas, D. D., 1856-1865. 

Baker, Hon. A. L., 1856, 1858-1860. 

Barton, David R., 1848-1850. 

Batcheller, J., 1851-1854. 

Beebee, Alexander M., 
1843. 

Bellows, A. J., M. D., 1853-1854, 
1856-1859. 

Benedict, D., D. D., 1861. 

Bleeker, Garret N., 1851-1853. 

Boardman, George Dana, D. D., 
1864-1865. 

Boone, Levi D., 1859-1860. 

Booth, John, 1840-1844. 


PEs): 


Brantly, William T., D. D., 1827- 
1829. 

Brimson, W..G., Esq., 1904-1909. 

Brown, Joseph E., 1883-1884. 

Bryce, John, 1824. 

Buck, William C., D. D., 1840-1843. 

Caswell, Alexis, D. D., 1856-1865. 

Chapman @evisositces. 

Charlton, Rev. Frederick, 1856-1858. 

Cheney, David B., D. D., 1859-1865. 

GhurchAHonsEy Gy lore 

Clarke, Miner G., D. D., 1857-1860. 

Colby, Hon. Anthony, 1856-1861. 

Colver, Nathaniel, D. D., 1860. 

Conaut, John A., 1840-1844. 

Cornelius, Samuel, D. D., 1825-1826. 

Cornell, Thomas, 1875-1877. 

Corwin, R. G., 1853-1854. 

Crane, James C., 1840. 

Crane, William, 1840-1844, 
1854, 1864-1865. 

Cresswell, Samuel J., 1840-1844, 
1852-1854, 1864-1865. 

Croskey, Henry, 1862-1865. 


1852- 


[ 84 ] 





MAIL ORDER DEPARTMENT 
Lookine EAstT 


THE JupsSoN Press BUILDIN 





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The Roster of a Century 


Crowell, William, D. D., 1861. 

Crozer, John P., 1851-1865. 

Crozer, Samuel A., 1866-1867, 1879- 
1884. 

Cummings, E. E., D. D., 1850. 

Cuthbert, James H., D. D., 1860. 

Dage, sj ohne, oa PD: 1830-1836; 
1840-1843. 

Davies, J. M., 1859-1865. 

Davis, George F., 1865, 1876-1878. 

Davis, Hon. Isaac, 1840-1849, 1857- 
1865. 

Davis, Mial, 1873-1874. 

Davis, S., 1862-1865. 

Day, Albert, 1850-1854. 

Day, Larkin B., 1878. 

Deane, John H., 1882. 

Doane, W. Howard, Mus. 
1879, 1901-1911. 

Dowling, John, D. D., 1852-1854. 

Draper, L. C., 1861-1865. 

Duncan, Hon. James H., 1850-1856. 

Dunlevy, A. H., 1856-1860. 

Eddy, Daniel C., D. D., 1860-1861. 

Eddy, Herman J., D. D., 1861. 

Edwards, Benjamin F., 1840-1841. 

Ellyson, Hon. H. K., 1882. 

Everts, William W., D. D., 1860- 
1868. 

Ewart, Hon. Thomas W., 1855-1861. 

Fleischmann, Rey. Konrad A., 1859- 
1861. 

Fletcher, Hon. Ryland, 1859-1865. 

Ford, J. M., 1859-1860. 

Foster, Thomas S., 1853-1854. 

Frost, James M., 1844. 

Gardiner, Richard, M. D., 1856-1860. 

Gillette, A. D., D. D., 1852-1854, 
1861. 

Gillmore, Hon. Joseph A., 1864-1865. 

Gillpatrick, J., 1860. 

Goodman, Edward, Esq., 1880-1899. 

Going, Jonathan, D. D., 1840-1844. 

Green, T. P., 1841. 

Greene, Prof. Samuel S., 1859. 


Doc., 


Greenough, B., 1840-1844. 

Gregory, John M., LL. D., 1873- 
1874. 

Griggs, J. W., 1864-1865. 

Grow, Fred A., 1921. 

Hague, William, D. D., 1851-1854. 

Harris, Hon. Ira, 1854. 

Harrison, John C., D. D., 1842-1859. 

Hart, H. B., 1862-1865. 

Haskell, Samuel, D. D., 1856-1865. 

Heck, J. M., 1875. 

Hedstrom, E. L., 1880-1881. 

Hinckley, F. E., 1875-1877. 

Hiscox les Deb 190k 

Holden, Charles N., 1869. 

Hope, George T., 1878. 

Horr, George R., D. D., 1894-1898. 

Howard, Hon. James L., 1872. 

Hoyt, Col. J. A., 1890-1893. 

Hughes, D.C; D.-D.{1900, 1902- 
1909. 

Humphrey, Friend, 1853. 

Ide, George B., D. D., 
1858-1860. 

Jayne, David, M. D., 1854. 

Jewell, Wilson, M. D., 1859-1860. 

Johnson, G. G., D. D., 1920-1921. 

Johnson, George J., D. D., 1856- 
1864. 

Jones, E. D., 1870-1872. 

Jones, William G., 1840-1842. 

Keen, William W., 1837-1855. 

Keller, Luther, 1918. 

Kempton, George, D. D., 1854. 

Kendrick, S. N., 1850-1854. 

Kennard, Joseph H., D. D., 1837- 
1843, 1855-1865. 

King, E. D., 1844. 

Kingsley, Hon. Chester W., 1900- 
1903. 

LaCoste, A. P., 1840-1844. 

Lee, Franklin, 1854, 1859-1860. 

Lemen, James, 1842. 

Levering, Joshua, Esq., 1885-1909. 

Lincoln, Heman, D. D., 1860. 


1850-1854, 


[ 85 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








Linnard, Hon. James M., 1850-1854, 
1856-1861. 

Loxley, Rev. Benjamin R., 1857- 
1860. 

McDaniel, James, 1840-1844. 

McKean, Rev. John A., 1860-1865. 

McPherson, William M., 1853-1854. 

Malcom, Howard, D. D., 1851-1854. 

Malcom, Rev. Thomas S&., 1853, 
1857-1860. 

Marshall, J. H., 1840-1845. 

Mason, J. M., 1841. 

Mauck, J. W., LL. D., 1913-1916. 

Merrill, J. Warren, 1866-1871, 1878- 

1881. 

Meyers, H. 5., 1918. 

Miter, M., 1856-1857. 

Morgan, Ebenezer, 1883-1884. 

Murdock, James N., 1856-1861. 

Nichols Bete eLO2U) 

Orr, David, 1840. 

Owen, Ezra D., 1842-1844. 

Pattison, Robert E., D. D., 1840. 

Peck, John M., D. D., 1848-1854. 

Peddie, John, D. D., 1879. 

Perkins, Aaron, D. D., 1861-1863. 

Perkins, J. C., 1842-1844. 

Pettit, William V., 1860-1861. 

Phelps, Sylvanus, D. D., 1859-1865. 

Phelps, William, 1856-1860. 

Pratt, Jo C8 1852-1354 

Quincey, Josiah, 1840-1844. 

Randall, James, 1872-1874. 

Rhees, Morgan J., D. D., 1843-1844. 

Rider, Hiram, 1840-1843. 

Riley, W. B., D. D., 1915-1917. 

Robinson, Ezekiel G., D. D., 1850- 
1852. 

Ross; t) .ita Ds alo 22. 

Runyan, Hon. Peter P., 1843, 1856- 
1861. 





Searles, J. W., D. D., 1896-1899. 

Shadrach, William, D. D., 1844. 

Shailer, William H., D. D., 1856- 
1861. 

Shepherd, J. H., 1846-1847. 

Sherwood, Adiel, D. D., 1842-1844. 

Simmons, James B., D. D., 1861- 
1865. 

Smith, Eli B., D. D., 1856-1860. 

Smith, J. B., 1840-1844. 

Stimson, H. K., D. D., 1865. 

Stow, Baron, D. D., 1851-1854. 

Strong, Frank, LL. D., 1910. 

‘Taylor; Elisha. bese se Sole 

Thomas, Rev. Archibald, 1840-1844. 

Toebit, Rev. A. M., 1856-1858. 

Tucker, Hy Hi DPD: LL D: 1885: 
1890. 

Turpin, 
1849. 

Upham, James, D. D., 1861. 

Wattson, Thomas, 1845-1854, 1857- 
1865. 

Wayland, Francis, D. D., 1840-1844, 
1850-1854. 

Welch, James E., D. D., 1840-1844, 
1860. 

Westover, Rev. J. T., 1865. 

Willet, Rev. C., 1863. 

Williams, Hon. J. M. S., 1857-1865. 

Williams, William R., D. D., 1842- 
1844. 

Williamson, 
1915. 

Wilson, D. M., 1856-1865. 

Wilson, Franklin, D. D., 1866-1871. 

Wilson, James, 1848-1850. 

Winter, Thomas, D. D., 1852-1854. 

Withers, John, 1852-1854. 

Woolsey, Rev. James J., 1844. 

Wording, J. E., 1860. 


Rev. William H., 1840- 


Weed, Oe DLO La 





MAIL ORDER DEPARTMENT 
Lookxinc NortH 


THE Jupson Press BUILDING 





The Roster of a Century 


GENERAL SECRETARIES 


George Wood, 1824-18206. 

Rev. Noah Davis, 1827-1830. 

Rev. Ira M. Allen, 1831-1838. 

Morgan, J. Rhees, D. D., 1840-1842. 

John M. Peck, D. D., 1843-1845. 

Rev. Thomas S. Malcolm, 1846-1852. 

Kendall Brooks, D. D.’ (Associate), 
1852. 

Heman Lincoln, D. D., 1853. 


William Shadrach, D. D., 1854-1856. 

Benjamin Griffith, D. D., 1857-1893. 

Col. Charles H. Banes, 1894. 

A. J. Rowland, D. D., LL. D., 1895- 
1916. 

Guy C. Lamson, D. D., 1917-1918. 

Gilbert N. Brink, D. D., 1919-1923. 

William H. Main, D. D., Associate 
General Secretary, 1922-1924. 


RECORDING SECRETARIES 


Isaac G. Hutton, 1824. 
Joseph Thaw, 1825-1826. 
Philalogus Loud, 1827-1828. 


Wilson Jewell, M. D., 1831-1832, 


1841. 
William Ford, 1833-1840. 
Morgan J. Rhees, D. D., 1840-1842. 
A. P. Drew, 1842. 
Levi Knowles, Jr., 1843-1845. 
Clement A. Wilson, 1846-1853. 
John Hanna, 1854. 


George C. Baldwin, D. D., 1855- 
1862. 

Rev. James Cooper, 1863-1869, 1878- 
1879. 

Horatio Gates Jones, 1870-1877. 

J. Howard Gendell, 1880-1888. 

A. J. Rowland, D. D., 1889-1894. 

J. G. Walker, D. D., 1895-1913. 

B. D. Stelle, 1914-1917. 

W. S. Bauer, 1917. 

Wm. H. Main, D. D., 1922-. 


TREASURERS 


Rev. Luther Rice, 1824-1825. 

Enoch Reynolds, 1826. 

Samuel Huggins, 1827-1836. 

William W. Keen, 1837-1855. 

Charles B. Keen, 1856. 

James S. Dickerson, D. D., 1857- 
1859. 


Washington Bucher, 1860-1861. 
William V. Pettit, 1862-1882. 
Charles H. Banes, 1883-1897. 
B. F. Dennison, 1898-1902. 
Harry S. Hopper, 1903-1918. 
George L. Estabrook, 1918-. 


CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD 


Joseph H. Kennard, D. D., 1856, 
1858-1860, 1866. 

Wilson Jewell, M. D., 1857. 

J. P. Crozer, 1861-1865. 


William Bucknell, 1867-1871, 1877- 
1889. 

S. A. Crozer, 1872-1874, 1890-1912. 

George K. Crozer, 1912-1919. 


J. P. Crozer Griffith, M. D., 1919-. 
[ 87 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








SECRETARIES OF THE BOARD 


John Baumgartner, 1887-1892. 
O. W. Spratt, 1893-1897. 
J. G. Walker, D. D., 1898-1915. 


B. D.- Stelle, 1915-1916. 
Daniel G. Stevens, Ph. D., 1916-. 


MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 


Abbott, Hon. Charles F., 1853-1897. 

Adams, Geo. D., D. D., 1913-1921. 

Aldrich, Rev. J., 1842-1843. 

Anderson, George W., D. D., 1847- 
1892. 

Arbuckle, Charles N., D. D., 1922-. 

Armitage, Thomas, D. D., 1883- 
1895. 

Ashton, Rev. W. E., 1827-1828, 1830- 
1834. 

Ashton, George H., 1865. 

Babcock, Rufus, D. D., 1837-1839. 

Bailey, W. A., 1908-1909. 

Bainbridge, H., 1917-. 

Ballentine, William, 1828-1832. 

Banes, Col. C. H., 1873-1894. 

Banes, Mrs. C. H., 1900-1909. 

Bauer, W. S., 1917-1919. 

Baumgartner, John, 1887-1892. 

Beckley, J. T., D. D., 1887-1894. 

Beebe, G. W., 1841. 

Beidleman, R. A., 1841. 

Bennett, E. A., 1843. 

Bitting, C. C., D. D., 1884-1896. 

Boardman, G. D., D. D., 1866, 1868- 
1874. 

Brantly, William T., D. D., 1854, 
1857-1861. 

Brimson, W. G., 1904-1909, 1918- 
1921. 

Brink, Gilbert N., D. D., 1919-. 

Brougher, J. W., D. D., 1913-1916. 

Brower, D., 1845-1850. 

Brown, Daniel, 1826. 

Brown, Thomas, 1829. 

Brown, T. Edwin, 1889-1896. 


Bucknell, William, 1841-1889. 

Bucknell, William Rufus, 1870-1874. 

Burnett, E. S., 1850-1854. 

Burrows, J. L., D. D., 1841-1854. 

Bussier, D. P., 1844. 

Butcher, Washington, 
1869. 

Callaghan, George, 1868-1884. 

Cassady, P. H., 1847-1874. 

Castle, J. H., D. D., 1859-1872. 

Caswell, Alexis, D. D., 1825-1826. 

Cathcart, W., D. D., 1860-1883. 

Cawood, Daniel, 1825-1826. 

Chapman, Levi S., 1921-1923. 

Charters, W. W., Ph. D., 1921-1924. 

Charlton, F., 1854. 

Chase, W. T., D. D., 1893-1896. 

Chase, Irah, D. D., 1825. 

Cheney, D. B., D. D., 1853-1858. 

Clark, David, 1840-1841. 

Clark, M. G., D. D., 1851-1856. 

Clegg, J. W., 1920-. 

Clinch, Hon. Hos. 9t2: 

Cole, H. F., 1918-. 

Collmer, E. B., 1922-. 

Cooper, Rev. George, 1875-1880. 

Covel, Rev. E., 1843. 

Cowe, Joseph, 1830. 

Cresswell, Samuel J., 1884. 

Cresswell, S. J., D. D., 1842-1849, 
1855-1857. 

Croskey, Henry, 1866-1867. 

Crozer, G. K., 1866-1920. 

Crozer, J. P., 1851-1865. 

Crozer, Robert, 1896-1918. 

Crozer, Samuel A., 1862-1911. 


1859, 1868- 


[ 88 ] 


ONIGTING ssa¥q Nosanf any 


WOOWODNISOdNOD 








The Roster of a Century 


Cushman, Elisha, D. D., 1827. 

Cushman, Robert W., D. D., 1828- 
1838. 

Cuthbert, J. H., D. D., 1855-1859. 

Dagg, J. L., D. D., 1828-1829. 

Dakin, E. Leroy, 1923-. 

Davis, John, 1827-1845. 

Davis, J. C., 1836-1855, 1857-1865. 

Day, Henry, D. D., 1855-1859. 

Dennis, Rev. William L., 
1848. 

Dennison, B. F., 1884-1902. 

Dickerson, Miss Grace, 1913. 

Dickerson, J. S., D. D., 1860. 

Dickinson, E. W., D. D., 1842-1844, 
1846. 

Doane, W. H., Mus. Doc., 1901- 
1915. 

Dodge, Rev. Daniel, 1839-1844. 

Dorman, William, 1827. 

Dowling, J., D. D., 1855. 

Drake, H. C., 1913-1915. 

Eddy, D. C., D. D., 1863-1864. 

Eldridge, James H., 1867-1869. 

Ellis, John, 1837. 

Estabrook, G. L., 1915-. 

Evans, Frederick, D. D., 1890-1892. 

Hyanseniltone a, 2Dorentlilcy Ds 
1909-1917. 

Everts, Rev. J. B., 1842. 

Fendall, Rev. E. D., 1863-1864. 

Fener, R., 1838-1840. 

Ferris, G. H., D. D., 1907-1911. 

Fleischmann, Rey. K. A., 1854. 

Fletcher, Rev. Leonard, 1833-1834. 

Folwell, Rev. J. N., 1895-1909. 

Ford, Isaac, 1844-1851, 1855-1863. 

Ford, William, 1841. 

Foster, T. S., 1851-1852. 

Galusha, Elijah, 1845. 

Gamble, John K., 1846-1847. 

Gardner, Richard, M. D., 1839-1841. 

Garrett, W. E., 1835-1839. 

Gaskill, J. H., 1886-1895. 

Gendell, J. H., 1888-1911. 


-1846- 


George, Charles, 1844-1845. 

Gibson, Joseph, 1824-1826. 

Gillette, A. D., D. D., 1836-1851. 

Gillette, Rev. P. D., 1836. 

Goodman, M. Edward, 1880-1900. 

Gordon, John, D. D., 1893-1913. 

Gray, Rev. Isaac, 1861. 

Green, Rev. H. K., 1826. 

Griffith, Benjamin, D. D., 1852-1893. 

Griffith, J. P. Crozer, M. D., 1912-. 

Griffith, Rev. T. S., 1865. 

Griswold, Rev. R. W., D. D., 1843- 
1845. 

Grow, Fred A., 1921. 

Gubelmann, Rev. J. S., 1870-1884. 

Hacker, George, 1827. 

Hall, Edwin, 1866-1867. 

Hansell W, #2 D>)D:> 1854, 1855, 
1862-1871. 

Hansell, W. S., 1827-1834, 1837-1842, 
1853, 1856, 1864. 

Harrison, John C., D. D., 1845-1848. 

Haslam, J. H., D. D., 1904-1913. 

Hayhurst, Rev. I. W., 1840-1841. 

Henson, P. S., D. D., 1861-1882. 

Hewson, John, 1841-1842. 

Higgins, Rev. George, 
1845-1848. 

Hillegas, J. K., 1830. 

Hinman, D. B., 1833-1837, 1854. 

Hires, W. D., 1849. 

Hiscox, E. T., D. D., 1896-1902. 

Hopper, Boardman, 1922-. 

Hopper, H. S., 1885-1918. 

Pernihergete tek 1). 01.3 
1884. 

Horr, G. C., D. D., 1894-1898. 

Hoskinson, J. B., 1873-1895. 

Hoskinson, T. J., 1873-1884. 

Hoyt, Col. James A., 1890-1893. 

Hoyt, Wayland, D. D., 1883-1889, 
1896-1911. 

Huggens, Rev. Samuel, 1837. 

Hucheseb7Gs 1D. DY 1901. 

Hutten, Isaac G., 1825-1826. 


1840-1842, 


1871- 


[ 89 | 


The First Hundred Years 








Ide, G. B., D. D., 1842-1849. 

Irving, James, 1879, 1886. 

Jacob, Robert U., 1893-1894. 

James, Israel E., 1835-1836. 

Jarman, Reuben, 1828-1829. 

Jayne, David, M. D., 1841-1849. 

Jeffrey, R., D. D., 1858-1860, 1862- 
1865. 

Jenkins, Harry L., 1922-. 

Jewell, Wilson, M. D., 1830, 18306, 
1838-1840. 

Johnson, .G/G, D. Dy 192i 

Johnson, G. J., D. D., 1878-1885. 

Johnson, James, 1824-1820. 

Johnson, Reuben, 1824. 

Jones, Rev. David, 1827-1833. 

Jones, Hon. Horatio Gates, 1860- 
1892. 

Jones, John, 1837-1841. 

Keen, C. B., 1878-1886. 

Keen, W. W., 1866-1871. 

Keen, W. W., M. D., 1872-1883. 

Keller, Luther, 1909-1910, 1917-1918. 

Kempton, George, D. D., 1845-1852. 

Kennard, Jos. H., D. D., 1827-1828, 
1832-1836, 1866. 

Kennard, Rey. J. S., 1867-1871. 

Ketcham, Rev. F. W., 1842, 1848. 

Keyes, Rev. C. B., 1838-1840. 

Keyser, Charles, D. D., 1870-1872. 

Kitts, Rev. Thomas, Jr., 1827-1828, 
1830-1832. 

Knowles, J. D., D. D., 1824-1825. 

Knowles, L., 1838-1842. 

Lawson, A. G., D. D., 1893-1895, 
1919-. 

Leas, D. P., 1887-1913. 

Lee, Franklin, 1836, 1843-1844, 1846- 
1853, 1857-1858. 

Lee, George, 1841-1842. 

Lee, W. T., 1916. 

Levering, Joshua, 1885-1909. 

Levy, E. M., D. D., 1850-1858. 

Levy, John P., 1859-1867. 

Lewis, S. G., 1869. 


Lincoln, Heman, D. D., 1850-1852. 

Lincoln, H. E., 1862-1863. 

Lincoln, T. O., D. D. 1842-1844. 

Linnard, James M., 1836, 1839-1843, 
1846. 

Lisk, Rev. G. James, 1913-1918. 

Loud, Philologus, 1829. 

Loxley, Rev. B. R., 1839. 

Lyle, J: W., D. -D., 1906-1922. 

Lynd, Samuel W., 1824-18206. 

MacArthur, Robert S., D. D., 1883. 

MacFarlane, H. K., 1918-. 

MacKay, R. M., 1912-1918. 

Main, W. H., D. D., 1908-. 

Malcom, Howard, D. D., 1827, 1850. 

Mann, William, 1864-1866. 

Mauck, J. W.,°LL_D., 1912-1914: 

Maylin, Jos., 1827-1833. 

McCloud, George, 1850. 

McKean, Rev. J. A., 1849-1853, 1856- 

1859. 

McKinney, H. N., 1897-1899. 

Meehan, John S., 1825-1826. 

Miles, Rev. George I., 1847-1853. 

Milford, H. J., 1867-1885. 

Miller, E. W., 1857. 

Morgan, Ebenezer, 1883-1887. 

Morgan, Rev. C. T., 1893-1895. 

Moss, Lemuel, D. D., 1873-1874. 

Muir, J. J., D. D,, 1889, 1913-1918. 

Mulford, H. J., 1867-1884. 

Mulford, John, 1830-1838. _ 

Mustin, John, 1850. 

Myers, Thomas A., 1844. 

Norton Ge C8) S00: 

Nugent, George, 1861-1883. 

Outlaw, George, 1825. 

Palmateer, C. A., 1921. 

Parmley, W. H., D. D., 1892-1894. 

Patton, W., 1859. 

Peacock, J. L., 1915-1918. 

Peddie, John, D. D., 1871-1878. 

Peltz, G. A., D. D., 1867-1870. 

Pendleton, J. M., D. D., 1866-1884. 

Perkins, D. W., 1903-1916. 








[ 90 | 





COMPOSING-ROOM 
BATTERY OF LINOTYPE MACHINES 


THE Jupson Press BUILDING 





The Roster of a Century 








Perry, Rev. G. B., 1831-1832. 

Peters, Rev. L. E., 1857-1859. 

Pettit, W. V., 1852-1858. 

Philips» J.C... Ph. D3 1919. 

Pidge, J. M. B., D. D., 1887-1888. 

Pierce, Robert F. Y:, D. D., 1912-. 

Poteat, E. M., D. D., 1899-1903. 

Price, O. J., Ph. D., 1912-1914. 

Randolph, Warren, 1859-1862, 1871- 
1877. 

Rannels, Rev. C. H., 1914. 

Reed, Enoch S., 1843. 

Reed, G. W., 1849. 

Reed, Isaac, 1833-1854. 

Reed, Jacob, 1835-1840, 1844. 

Rees, G. E., D. D., 1884-1909. 

Remington, Rev. S., 1852-1853. 

Reynolds, Enoch, 1824-1825. 

Reynolds, Jos., 1831-1838. 

Rhees, Morgan J., D. D., 1831. 

Rhoades, J. D., Esq., 1916-. 

Rice, Rev. Luther, 1826. 

Richards, William H., 1828-1837. 

Riley, W. B., D. D., 1915-1918. 

Robinson, Rev. W. H., 1884-1887. 

Robinson, Frank, 1917-. 

Roe, C. M., 1907. 

TLOSS len) ee) 0). a1 O22. 

Rosselle, W. Q., Ph. D., 1910-. 

Rowlattters osreb). 18752 
1917. 

Rue, L. L., 1903-1905, 1915-. 

Sage, A. J., D. D., 1869. 

Sagebeer, J. E., Ph. D., 1898-. 

Sanford, Rev. E. T., 1910-1912. 

Schulz, Rev. Henry, 1888-1891. 

Search, Henry, D. D., 1889-1898. 

Searles, J. W., D. D., 1888-1899. 

Sexton, J. W., 1859-1860. 

Sexton, Silas W., 1827. 

snadrach William, D:D. 
1841, 1845-1847. 

Sheppard, Joseph, 1837. 

Sherborne, F. P., 1835-1838. 

Shoemaker, Robert, 1857. 


1838, 


Shoemaker, W. M., 1875-1877. 

Simmons, J. B., D. D., 1866. 

Smith, John H., 1829. 

Smith, Rev. J. Hyatt, 1825, 1860- 
1866. 

Smith, J. Wheaton, D. D., 1854-1881. 

Snyder, W. F., 1875-1887. 

Staughton, James M., D. D., 1825- 
1826. 

Staughton, William, D. D., 1824- 
1826. 

Steinmetz, Adam, 1856. 

stelle, ‘Rev: D: B., 1913-1920. 

Stevens, John S., 1878-1905. 

Stewart, David T., 1839. 

Stout, J. W., 1870-1877. 

Stow, Baron, D. D., 1826. 

Strong, Frank, LL. D., 1910-1911. 

Swartz, James, 1891-1903. 

Swetland, Roger W., LL. D., 1922-. 

Swope, George, 1835, 1839, 1840- 
1843. 

Taylor, E. L., 1919-. 

Taylor, Joseph, 1836. 

Taylor, Rev. R. T;, 1850-1853. 

Thaw, Joseph, 1824. 

Lhomass Ba Do Ds.D. 1873-1891, 

Thomas, Erasmus, M. D., 1827-1832. 

Thomas, Rev. Jesse B., D. D., 1883- 
1889. 

Tolman, Thomas, 1858-1865. 

Trevor, John B., 1834-1838, 1842. 

Tucker, Rev. C., 1850. 

PUCKCLs bette) ul cls, Din LOO le 
1889. 

Tucker, Levi, D. D., 1834-1835. 

Tupper, Kerr B., D. D., 1896-1905. 

sPastings 1one Pl: 1.81 896- 
1921. 

Ustick, Stephen, 1825-18206. 

Wait, Samuel, 1825-1826. 


Walkers iceG.D: D, .1885-1887, 
1891-1914. (Editor “ American 
Baptist Year-Book,’ 1872-1884, 


1897-1915.) 


[91] 


The First Hundred Years 


ee —————————————————————————————eeeoeaeaewews=$=0=0$~$~<~<~<—0OSSS»$“—M—m—m—=—=waom'— 


Walton, Charles S., 1900-1915. 

Walton, J., 1848. 

Warne, J. A., D. D. 1838-1839. 

Wattson, T., 1843-1844, 1855-1856, 
1866-1871. 

Webb, G.»S., D. D., 1845-1846. 

Webster, P., 1833-1834. 

Welch, J. E., D. D., 1847-1848. 

Weston, H. G., D. D., LL. D., 1868- 
1908. 

Wheat, Rev. A. C., 1855-1856. 

White, Thomas, 1844. 

Whitman, B. L., D.-D., 1903-1907. 


Wilder, Rev. William, 1855-1868. 

Williams, Rev. C. C., 1843-1844. 

Williamson, W. J., D. D., 1913- 
1914. 

Wilmarth, J. W., D. D., 1890-1903. 

Wilson, C. A., 1845. 

Winter, Rev. Thomas, D. D., 1850- 
1851. 

Wood, Byron, D. D., 1893-1907. 

Woolsey, Rev. J. -J., 1836-1837. 

Wynn, Isaac C., D. D., 1881-1888. 

Young, Smith G., 1914-1924. 


BIBLE AND MISSIONARY SECRETARIES 


C. C. Bitting, D. D., 1883-1895. 
Robert G. Seymour, D. D., 1896- 
1912. 


Guy C. Lamson, D. D., 1913-1915. 
Samuel Graham Neil, D. D., 1918-. 


DISTRICT SECRETARIES 


Rev. Francis Smith, 1864-1865. 
Rey. Silas Illsley, 1864-1870. 
Rev. Sidney Dyer, Ph. D., 1864-1880. 
A. J. Johnson, D. D., 1864-1876. 
Rev. J. W. Stone, 1865-1868. 
Rev. J. N. Sykes, 1866. 

C. R. Blackall, M. D., 1867-1869. 
Rev. W. C. Van Meter, 1869. 
Rev. H. Daniels, 1869. 

Rev. W. C. Child, 1870-1872. 

Rev. F. G. Thearle, 1870-1880. 
Rufus Babcock, D. D., 1871-1872. 
Rev. D. C. Litchfield, 1873-1874. 
Andrew Pollard, D. D., 1874-1886. 
Rey. S. T. Levermore, 1874. 

Rey. James Waters, 1874-1876. 
Rev. H. K. Stimson, 1875. 

J. S. Backbees, D. D., 1876. 

Rev. D. T. Morrill, 1876-1877. 
Rey. Frank Remington, 1879-1882. 
M. T. Sumner, D. D., 1879-1880. 
G. M. Vanderlip, D. D., 1880-1883. 
Rev. A. H. Lung, 1882-1885. 
James Lisk, D. D., 1883-1884. 


Charles H. Spalding, D. D., 1885- 
1914, 

James B. Simmons, D. D., 1886-1904. 

S. T. Clanton, D. D., 1891-1896. 

E. M. Brawley, D. D., 1892-1896. 

J. W. Harris, D. D.; 1893-1896. 

O. F. Flippo, D. D., 1895-1904. 

W. C. Luther, D. D., 1896-1900. 

S. N. Vass, D. D., 1896-1918. 

Rev. E. S. Stucker, 1897-1900. 

Rev. Harvey Hatcher, 1897-1904. 

E. M. Stephenson, D. D., 1900- 
1902. 

T. J. Walne, D. D., 1901-1904. 

Rey. T. L. Ketman, 1903-1919. 

Rev. C. H. Rust, 1906. 

S. G. Neil, D. D., 1906-1917. 

W. W. Pratt, D. D., 1907-1915. 

Rey. J. M. Robertson, 1907-1908. 

Rev. J. P. Jacobs, 1907-1915. 

Rev. Guy C. Lamson, 1912. 

Rev. G. L. White, 1913-1919. 

Rev. J. C. Robbins, 1913. 

Rev. P. H. J. Lerrigo, 1914-1916. 


[92] 





ELECTROTYPE FOUNDRY 
THE JupsoNn Press BuILpING 





The Roster of a Century 


MANAGERS 
H. V. Meyer, 1917-1920. H. E. Cressman, 1921-. 


BOOK EDITORS 


J. N. Brown, D. D., 1850-1859. P. L. Jones, D. D., 1894-1913. 
G. W. Anderson, D. D., 1864-1892. Daniel G. Stevens, Ph. D., 1913-. 


EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SUNDAY SCHOOL 
PUBLICATIONS 


C. R. Blackall, D. D., 1883-1916. 
 W. E. Raffety, Ph. D., 1916-1924. 
O. C. Brown, D. D., 1924-. 


SECRETARY OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
YOUNG PEOPLE AND TEACHER-TRAINING 
-~W. E. Chalmers, D. D., 1912-. 


SECRETARY OF SOCIAL EDUCATION 
Samuel Zane Batten, D. D.,. 1912-. 


DIRECTOR OF VACATION AND WEEK-DAY 
SCHOOLS 
Thomas S. Young, D. D., 1921-. 


DIRECTOR OF ELEMENTARY WORK 
Meme Brockway, 1916-. 


[ 93 ] 


ener ci 
CF airs 1S a 
Ra Seek 





VI 


THE ANNALS OF THE CENTURY 
Prepared by E. M. STEPHENSON 


When there crept into the charter of this Society 
those famous words, “ The object of this Corporation 
shall be to promote evangelical religion by means of 
the Bible, the Printing Press, Colportage, Sunday- 
schools and other appropriate ways,” there was given 
to it a sort of undying prophecy of the great work 
it was destined to do and the large place it was 
destined to fill. .. But the formal engrafting of these 
words upon the charter was no new inoculation. It 
was simply the coming to the surface of a life which 
had been flowing through the veins of the Society 
during all its history——Address of C. H. Spalding, 
D.D, at Detroit, Michigan, in 1900. 





NORTHEAST SECTION OF PRESS-ROOM 
THE Jupson Press BUILDING 





VI 


1824-1834 


1824.—“ The Columbian Star” of February 21, 1824, contained a call for 
a meeting in the home of George Wood, to consider the formation of 
a Baptist Tract Society, Wednesday evening, February 25. Pursuant 
to the call twenty-five persons, eighteen men and seven women, met, 
and selected as chairman Dr. Wm. Staughton, the president of Colum- 
bian College. 

By unanimous action the Baptist General Tract Society was organ- 
ized, a constitution adopted with a full list of officers. 

1824-1825.—Mr. J. D. Knowles reported the publication of 85,500 pages of 
nineteen tracts. 

1825-1826.—Mr. George Wood and Mr. Noah Davis made a special appeal 
for the removal of the Headquarters of the Society to Philadelphia 
so as to facilitate transportation and save expense. 

1826-1827.—Noah Davis being persuaded to accept the agency of the Society 
at a special meeting of the Managers, the transfer to Philadelphia was 
ordered, November 26, 1827. 

Mr. Simmes, an apothecary on Chestnut Street, received boxes, pack- 
ages, and letters at Philadelphia dock, reshipping to their destinations 
for two years without compensation. 

1827-1828.—The first periodical issued was “ The Baptist Tract Magazine,” 
July, 1827. Receipts for the year, $3,158.04. Tracts issued, 1,346,024 
royal octavo pages. Mr. N. R. Cobb, of Boston, proposed to give 
$500 on condition that the Philadelphia brethren give a like sum. This 
was done, and $1,000 added. 

1828-1829.—Population of the U. S. 11,000,000 souls. One in 46 a Baptist. 
Inquiries come in for “ Sunday-school statistics” occasioned by quite 
a number of adventurous churches having sent in full accounts of their 
schools and teaching activities to their Associations in the church 
letters. 

1829-1830.—*“ Youth’s Magazine,” a section of “Tract Magazine,” issued 
separately for 25 cents a year. The Society’s first legacy $20 from 
a “Sister in the Lord” in Connecticut. ‘The time may come when 
the number of schools in our denomination will be so great as to 
require the Society to publish a series of Sabbath-school books suited 
to their needs.” From last report of Noah Davis. 

1830-1831.—The President of the Board, Dr. W. T. Brantly, served as 
Agent the first half of the year until the arrival of a successor to 
Noah Davis, Rev. Ira M. Allen. 


[97 | 


The First Hundred Years 


1831-1832.—Doctor Judson, of Burma, made a strong plea for tracts as the 
new press of Doctor Bennett, of Rangoon, could not supply the de- 
mand. It was proposed that the Society raise “$10,000 for tracts here 
and $10,000 for there.” 


1832-1833.—Captain Tubbs of Philadelphia placed some of our tracts in 
the hands of Mr. J. G. Oncken, Hamburg, Germany, which led to 
Baptist work in five European countries. J. M. Peck called for tracts 
for his large field in the West. A missionary in Sault Ste. Marie, 
Canada, Rev. E. Cameron, read one of our tracts and became con- 
vinced, and was baptized according to the New Testament with three 
of his Indians. 


1833-1834.—The Rev. Levi Tucker and Mr. John B. Trevor were added to 
’ the Board. Dr. Nathaniel Colver and R. W. Cushman from New 
York spoke to the report of the Board. 


1834-1844 


1834-1835.—The Board received a strong appeal for a library for Sunday 
schools and for a Sunday School Union to issue literature suitable to 
our convictions. A bound volume of our own tracts under the title 
of “ Baptist Manual” proved a great power in explaining our position. 
A fund was opened to give the Baptist Manual to every family in the 
Mississippi Valley. 


1835-1836.— The Tract Magazine” was superseded by the ‘“ Monthly 
Folio.” Reports speak of great interest in Germany. Doctor Judson 
wrote of the popularity of American Baptist tracts in Burma and made 
a plea for another grant. Triennial Convention urged the Society to 
enlarge its work and issue bound volumes. 


1836-1837.—Joseph Kennard, Jacob Reed, and W. W. Keen were added 
to the Board. 


1837-1838.—Dr. Barnas Sears urged advanced work among Germans in 
America. <A letter from Germany records an interview which the 
King of Prussia sought with our brethren Oncken, Lehman, and 
Schauffer to learn the meaning of the Baptist principle. The date 
of holding annual meeting changed to spring. One thousand five hun- 
dred copies of Baptist Manual sold. 


1838-1839.—The Board in its report urged the request of the Triennial 
Convention that the Society issue bound books which would set forth 
our peculiar doctrines, and to publish Sunday-school books, biographi- 
cal, historical, and doctrinal, suited to the understanding of the schol- 
ars. The names of G. B. Ide and B. R. Loxley added to the list of 
managers. Baron Stow moved that the report of the Board proposing 
enlarged work of the Society be carried out. Motion carried. 


[ 98 ] 





SOUTHWEST SECTION OF PRESS-ROOM 
THE Jupson Press BuILpING 





The Annals of the Century 








1839-1840.—The name of the Society changed to The American Baptist 
Publication and Sunday School Society. It became the first Colpor- 
tage Society in the world. B. R. Loxley became General Agent. Bound 
volumes begin to come from our press. G. B. Ide, President; 
W. Williams Keen, Treasurer. 


1840-1841.—Annual report read by Morgan J. Rhees, Corresponding Sec- 
retary. The “Baptist Record,” which had superseded the “ Monthly 
Folio,” becomes a weekly. The Society asked by the Triennial Con- 
vention to publish a denominational hymn-book. 


1841-1842.—The Board planned a ‘ ‘Family Library” and a “ Sunday School 
Library.” Ten thousand copies of Baptist Almanac sold. Record 
3,300 weekly. 

1842-1843.—J. M. Peck elected Corresponding Secretary, succeeding Doctor 
Rhees. The Board called for two copies of minutes of all associations. 


1843-1844.—The Society issued the new hymn-book, the Psalmist, and sold 
more than 30,000 copies. Twelve thousand copies of the Baptist 
Almanac sold. The words “Sunday School” were dropped from 
the name but not from the work of the Society. The Society called 
for a capital fund of $50,000. 


1844-1854 


1844-1845-—The population in the West doubling every ten years. Our 
colporters bestow special attention on Sunday schools, temperance, and 
missions. Complete works of Andrew Fuller to be published. 


1845-1846.—Stereotyped edition of Howell’s “ Scriptural Communion” and 
“Deaconship.” The Society offers to place a colporter in a destitute 
region for $100 a year. Thomas S. Malcom succeeds J. M. Peck as 
Corresponding Secretary. 


1846-1847.—A bound volume of our tracts entitled “ Reign of Grace” from 
the initial tract. One hundred dollars sest to Holland through Doctor 
Oncken in response to a call for aid of a convert to our faith, Rev. 
Mr. Feisser. Twenty missionary-colporters at work in eleven States. 


1847-1848.—New editions of Carson’s works, Howell on “The Deacon- 
ship,” Bunyan’s “ Pilgrim’s Progress,” Baptist Manual, Pengilly in 
French. Eighteen colporters at work in ten States, three Germans, 
one of them a converted Romanist. 


1848-1849.—The new publications numbered fifteen. The $10,000 fund 
completed. The building fund is now $1,659.07. 

1849-1850.—J. Newton Brown began work as Book Editor. The Society 
entered its new building at 530 Arch Street, and Doctor Brown read 
his paper on the history of the Society. Twenty-one colporters in 
eleven States. The second Sunday in June set apart as a day of 
prayer for the Society. 


[ 99 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








1850-1851.—The Charter of the Society made perpetual by the Legislature 
of Pennsylvania in virtue of the act of April 14, 1841. 


1851-1852.—The number of missionary-colporters has reached 34. Two 
brethren set apart $2,500 each as a permanent fund for this work. 
The Society asked that the second Sunday in June be set apart perma- 
nently as a day of prayer and offerings for the work of the Society. 
Oncken having translated Pengilly on Baptism into German, asked for 
$1,000 to publish it. The money was gathered and sent. 


1852-1853.—The first number of the “ American Baptist Register” gives 
the number of churches of our faith in the U. S. as 10,000, and gives 
the names of pastors and their addresses. The Historical Society was 
formed as a Department of The American Baptist Publication Society 
with Dr. Wm. R. Williams, of New York, President. 


1853-1854.—A depository opened in Chicago with Leroy Church in charge. 
Rev. Wm. Shadrach chosen as Corresponding Secretary succeeding 
T. S. Malcom. The first annual report of the Historical Department 
was read and printed. A group of women set about to raise a fund 
for a new home for the Society. Before the Arch Street property was 
bought and paid for 1,000 women had given $10 each. 


1854-1864: 


1854-1855.—First meeting of the Society to be held in Chicago, J. P. 
Crozer presided. Justin T. Smith made district agent for Chicago. | 
Rev. C. F. Hejdenberg, a Swedish pastor, became converted to our 
views and went to Hamburg to be baptized, and on his return baptized 
many converts and organized four churches. 


1855-1856.—The Society bought out the New England Sunday School 
Union for $6,715. “The Young Reaper” which had been published by 
the Union was issued in improved form with an edition of 30,000. The 
first Sunday-school question-book for Baptists issued this year. 


1856-1857.—Dr. Benjamin Griffith was elected General Secretary to suc- 
ceed Doctor Shadrach. Depository enlarged. Sixty-eight colporters 
laboring in 17 States. 

1857-1858.—All operations and industries feel the clogging of financial 
depression all over the land. “The $50,000 capital fund should be 
made $100,000, for the needs of the Baptists are strongly felt.” 


1858-1859.—Missionary-colporters instructed to constitute Baptist Sunday 
schools as well as union schools. The Board by unanimous reso- 
lution voted to ask the denomination for an enlargement fund of 
$100,000. 

1859-1860.—The Society began a series of Sunday-school question-books 
suitable for Baptist schools. During the year the colporters of the 
Society organized 34 churches, baptized 722 converts. 


[ 100 ] 





ROTARY PRESS FOR PRINTING “ YOUNG PEOPLE ” 
THE Jupson Press BUILDING 





The Annals of the Century 








1860-1861.—“‘ The Children’s Choir,” a new Sunday-school song-book, is 
issued and is meeting a large sale. Wm. Phelps elected President of 
the Society. 


1861-1862.—Brethren Crozer and Bucknell agreed to enlarge the building 
to relieve the crowded condition if the friends would add an equal 
sum to the working capital. Conditions met and the addition made, 
with no debt save one of gratitude. 


1862-1863.—Jonathan Davis gave his $2,500 fund for colportage work, and 
John P. Crozer his library fund of $10,000. 


1863-1864.—Dr. George W. Anderson appointed Book Editor. Fifty col- 
porters at work, and fifty more needed at once in the growing West 
and among the freedmen in the South. 


1864-1874 


1864-1865.—*“ National Baptist” founded; 50 men contributing the neces- 
sary fund. “ First Reader for Freedmen” and “ The Freedman’s Book 
of Christian Doctrine” issued. 


1865-1866.—A missionary Memorial Fund in honor of John P. Crozer, 
$50,000. Samuel Patten left a colporter fund of $2,000. By mutual 
agreement the Swedish work was committed to the Missionary 
Union. 


1866-1867.—The Society was requested to issue a “ Year-Book” and a new 
Baptist Hymnal. The field men requested to constitute new schools 
and improve old ones. 


1867-1868.—The Society more and more generally acknowledged as the 
Sunday-school Society of the denomination. The first Year-Book 
issued with the purpose to make it an annual publication. 


1868-1869.—The Board asked the Society to consider the appointment of a 
Sunday-school superintendent for the whole country. The Society 
began issuing Lesson Helps in advance of the International System, 
and gained a subscription of 10,000. The first Baptist National Sun- 
day School Convention was held in St. Louis in November through 
the efforts of Dr. C. R. Blackall of the Chicago House, and largely 
directed by Mr. E. D. Jones of St. Louis. 


1869-1870.—The St. Louis Convention led to the publication of the “ Baptist 
Teacher” and the appointment of Dr. Warren Randolph as Sunday 
School Secretary. 


1870-1871.—The Society brought out a new hymn-book. “Young People” 
has reached a sale of 2,294,288 copies; ‘“ Baptist Teacher,” 300,000 
copies; “ Macedonian and Record,’ 125,000 copies; ‘“ Bible Lessons,” 
1,000 copies. 


[ 101 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


1871-1872.—The Second Baptist National Sunday School Convention held 
in Cincinnati, under the direction of Doctor Randolph. Doctor Black- 
all read a paper advocating the suggestion of B. F. Jacobs favoring 
Uniform Lessons. 

1872-1873.—“ Our Little Ones” entered on its career, a worthy competitor 
for public favor. Doctor Blackall, at the suggestion of Mr. Jacobs 
and Edward Eggleston, prepared a prospectus covering a whole year 
and took it in person to show Doctor Griffith who accepted the sug- 
gestion in full. 

1873-1874.—Bible Lessons and Primary Lessons issued. Hovey-Gregory 
“Normal Class Manual” published, which antedated by two years 
Doctor Vincent’s “ Normal Class,” a high-grade publication. 


‘ 1874-1884 


1874-1875.—Baptist question-book on the International Lessons. One 
hundred new Sunday schools organized. Thirty thousand Bibles sold 
by colporters. Dr. J. Hatcher Smith laid the corner-stone for a new 
building, 1420 Chestnut Street. 

1875-1876.—The Society moved into its new building on Chestnut Street. 
A complete commentary on the New Testament with Doctor Hovey 
as Editor-in-Chief is a project of the Society. 


1876-1877——The Third National Baptist Sunday School Institute held in 
Boston. Dr. Warren Randolph closed his secretarial work to reenter 
the pastorate. 

1877-1878.—Dr. G. J. Johnson appointed Missionary-Secretary. Dr. P. W. 
Bickel selected by the Society to establish a Publication House in 
Germany, accepted the work, and left Cleveland for that post. Ques- 
tion-books superseded by graded quarterlies. 

1878-1879.—An encouraging word comes from the work of Doctor Bickel 
in Germany. Five new missionaries employed. 

1879-1880.—The Board projected, and the Society executed a centenary 
celebration of Robert Raikes founding a Sunday school in Gloucester, 
England, which netted the Society for Sunday-school extension the 
sum of $10,000. 

1880-1881.—* Advanced Quarterly,” the “Intermediate Quarterly,” and 
Picture Lesson Cards now reenforce the list of lesson helps, and the 
“Sunlight” has been put into the field to reenforce “ Young Reaper.” 

1881-1882.—Rev. Benjamin Griffith, D. D., this year rounds out twenty-five 
years of service as General Secretary of the Society. 

1882-1883.—In this year was the memorable Bible Convention at Saratoga 
when the Bible work of the denomination was committed to the 


Society. The Baptist Hymnal appeared and met with an enormous 
initial sale. 


[ 102 ] 





FOLDING MACHINES IN BINDERY 
THE Jupson Press BUILDING 


Le frabrs oe 
a7 ‘= ths 4 
‘ aes iy 





The Annals of the Century 


1883-1884.—Interesting instances of cooperation of Southern brethren in 
_ the Society’s work for Negroes in the South. Dr. C. C. Bitting 
appointed Bible Secretary. 


1884-1894. 


1884-1885.—Doctor Bickel reported his work completed, and the German 
Publication Society established and self-supporting. Dr. G. J. John- 
son retired as Missionary Secretary, and his work was united with 
Bible work under Doctor Bitting. ‘“ Senior Quarterly” and “ Baptist 
Superintendent” added to the list. 

1885-1886.—By agreement of the Societies all Bible money to be gathered 
by The American Baptist Publication Society. 

1886-1887.—The total issuance of the Society from the beginning to the 
present 330,087,724 copies of tracts, books, and periodicals, an average 
daily output of 1,483,000 pages for the entire period. 

1887-1888.—The Society established a Depository in Atlanta, not for finan- 
cial reasons, but as a necessary method of business for a denomina- 
tional Society. 

1888-1889.—A resolution favoring advanced work in Bible translation and 
urging the Society to undertake it. Great need of the distribution of 
the Scriptures mentioned in the reports from the field. 

1889-1890.—The Society is employing 132 workers in 37 States. The yearly 
increase for the last 40 years has been 410 ordained ministers, 645 
churches, 61,108 members. 

1890-1891.—The first chapel car was dedicated at Cincinnati, May 23, 1891. 


1891-1892.—The completed revision of the Bible Union Version of the New 
Testament was announced, and the books on sale. Dr. C. C. Bitting 
made a plea for chapel car No. 2 and received $3,071. 


1892-1893.—Chapel car Evangel in its first year visited 88 places, held 424 
sessions, 474 sermons, 400 conversions, 4 Sunday schools organized, 
and 8 churches. The Young People’s Union sold to the organization 
in Chicago. Chapel car No. 2 completed, and a friend in New York 
agrees to build No. 3 if another will build No. 4. 


1893-1894.—Doctor Griffith’s departure, October 24, 1894. The Board chose 
Col. C. H. Banes to the office of Secretary. Chapel car No. 3 dedi- 
cated and car No. 4 nearing completion. 


1894-1904 


1894-1895.—Dr. A. J. Rowland of Baltimore, Recording Secretary of the 
Society, becomes General Secretary, February 24, 1895. Eighty-five 
missionary-colporters besides Sunday-school missionaries at work in 
the States. 


[ 103 ] 


The First Hundred Years 


1895-1896.—February 2, 1896, the fine building on Chestnut Street de- 
stroyed by fire. October 12 marked the completion and the dedication 
of the new Printing-house on Juniper and Lombard Streets. 
A satisfactory trial with a hired wagon in the woods of Michigan 
by the Sunday-school missionary, assisted by Robert Bailey, pastor at 
Pentwater. 


1896-1897.—The Board decided to rebuild on the Chestnut Street site, and 
reported the building well under way. “ Sunlight” gives way to “ Boys 
and Girls,” May 27, 1897. First wagon dedicated at Plainwell, Michi- 
gan. The wagon given by Dr. J. Fletcher, and equipment and team by 
other friends and Sunday schools. 


1897-1898.—The completion and formal opening of the new Headquarters 
in place of the one destroyed, November 17, 1897. “ Sursum Corda,” 
a book of praise for the congregation, issued from the society’s press. 
A new covered wagon fitted for living replaced the missionary wagon 
and was dedicated in Jackson, Michigan, in April, 1898, as Colportage 
Wagon No. 1, in charge of E. M. Stephenson. Wagon No. 2 sent to 
Utah, gift of Mr. Crozer, Jay Pruden in charge. Wagon No. 3, gift 
of friends in Michigan, dedicated in Grand Rapids for work among 
the Danes; J. Larsen in charge. 


1898-1899.—For the first time the Society has employed women in co- 
operation with churches in Spokane, Wilmington, Philadelphia. The 
experiment is a success. 


1899-1900.—The Society has now 11 wagons and 5 chapel cars. The Busi- 
ness Department from 1824 to 1874 gave the Missionary Department 
$250,000. The Norwalk Baptist Church of Ohio, Rev. Herbert Agate, 
pastor, made a gift of wagon No. 13 for Nebraska. 


1900-1901.—Modahl Memorial Wagon dedicated to go among the Swedes 
in Minnesota. Miss Augusta Soderburg appointed a missionary among 
the Finns in Finland. The Society has sold more books from our own 
presses than in any former year. 


1901-1902.—The Martin J. Lewis Memorial Wagon dedicated by South 
Dakota Convention for work in the Dakotas. A new wagon has been 
sent to Arizona, and one to East Washington, gift of friends of the 
McMichaels who retire from a long service. 

1902-1903.—Dr. A. J. Rowland at the Convention in Buffalo offered the 
following resolution: ‘“ We request the committee of reference on ap- 
pointment to take into consideration the possibility of such affiliations 
of the several societies as will secure their annual assembling not 
simply as separate organizations, but as one council or body.” 


1903-1904.—On the Committee of Reference, Dr. H. G. Weston and Dr. 
Emory W. Hunt will act for the Society. The new “Story Quar- 
terly” launched. 


[ 104 ] 





PAMPHLET BINDERY 
THE Jupson Press BUILDING 





The Annals of the Century 


1904-1914 


1904-1905.—A new emphasis being laid on teacher-training. A few States 
are beginning to feel a larger responsibility for more effective work 
in Sunday schools. 


1905-1906.—The sale of the Crozer Building one of the events of the year. 
Rev. S. G. Neil becomes District Superintendent succeeding Doctor 
Flippo. The First Colportage Cruiser, The Mamie Beal, Captain D. W. 
Townsend in charge, is operating on the Columbia River. 


1906-1907.—Rev. C. H. Rust after many years of service with the Society, 
reenters the pastorate. The O. F. Flippo Memorial Wagon dedicated 
for work in Delaware placed in charge of Mr. Stewart. 


1907-1908.—Announcement was made of a new site for the Headquarters 
of the Society, 1701-1703 Chestnut Street, and a seven-story building 
well on the way to completion. A new missionary periodical, “ World- 
Wide,” has been added to our list, and “Our Boys and Girls” has 
been superseded by “ Girl’s World” and “ Youth’s World.” 


1908-1909.—At an expense of $20,000 the Society took over the burdens 
and risks of the B. Y. P. U. of A., January, 1909. C. M. Roe, long 
connected with the Society, resigned as Business Manager. Harry V. 
Meyer from the Philadelphia House became Manager in Boston. 


1909-1910.—A good beginning has been made in “ Keystone Graded Les- 
sons,’ the new International Lesson Courses. C. M. Phillips was 
called from Indiana to reenforce the editorial staff. 


1910-1911.—One of our colportage wagons and its missionary accom- 
panied by Doctor Seymour and Rev. Joe Jacobs, entered the famous 
Jackson’s Hole in Wyoming. George L. White appointed District 
superintendent for the Pacific Coast. Twenty-five denominations united 
in forming the Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denominations. 


1911-1912—The United Society of Free Baptist Young People, through 
Harry S. Meyers, consummated the Union with the Young People’s 
Department of The American Baptist Publication Society. The com- 
bination of the young people’s work and the teacher-training work into 
the Educational Department, with Rev. W. E. Chalmers as Secretary, 
marked an advance. 

1912-1913.—Rev. Daniel G. Stevens, Ph. D., becomes Book Editor suc- 
ceeding Dr. P. L. Jones. In Doctor Chalmers’ Department the old 
title, “ Sunday School Missionary,” gives way to that of “ Director of 
Religious Education.” 

1913-1914.—A second cruiser for the Netherlands of California dedicated 
at Suisum Bay, while a third is being constructed as a memorial to 
Dr. Robert G. Seymour and named for him. 


[105 ] 


The First Hundred Years 





1914-1924, 


1914-1915.—The last report of Dr. Adoniram Judson Rowland consisted of 
a resumé of “Two Decades” and the “ Pupil’s Work Exhibit.” The 
award went to the First Church of Denver. Great stress was laid 
on the work of religious education in the report. 


1915-1916.—Harry V. Meyer brought from Boston to be Business Manager 
at Headquarters. All evangelical denominations approve the New 
Standard Teacher-training Course of 120 lessons. In twenty States 
Miss Meme Brockway, Director of Children’s Work, reports directors 
of children’s work free of salary. 


1916-1917.—Dr. Christopher R. Blackall, after fifty years of responsibility 
as Editor-in-Chief of Sunday School Publications, laid down the 
task, and W. Edward Raffety, Ph. D., was called to that important 
work. 


1917-1918.—The year marked by great advance in the Department of Re- 
ligious Education and that of Sunday-school courses and periodicals. 
The Society more and more a cooperating force in assemblies, Con- 
ventions, and city institutes, through its departments of Religious 
Education and of Social Education. 


1918-1919.—Early in the Convention year Mr. Frank H. Robinson was 
chosen Acting General Secretary. The Bible and Field Department 
reorganized with Dr. S. G. Neil as Superintendent. In December, 
1918, Gilbert N. Brink, D. D., was elected General Secretary of the 
Society. Doctor Chalmers esate an ue Directors’ Conference 
at Strontia Springs, Denver. 


1919-1920.—A new set of By-laws approved and adopted by the Society. 
Rev. Seldon Roberts called to the Division of Teacher-training. Mr. 
George L. Estabrook was elected Treasurer of the Society, and H. E. 
Cressman Assistant Treasurer. Mr. Albert Hughes becomes Manager 
of the St. Louis House. 


1920-1921—The publication of a series to be known as Judson Training 
Manuals was authorized. The Keystone Series of lesson courses com- 
pleted. A Joint Bureau of Architecture formed, with Mr. Merrill for 
the Home Mission Society, and H. E. Tralle for the Publication 
Society, is announced. Dr. Samuel Zane Batten has reorganized his 
Division with the title of Department of Social Education. 


1921-1922.—Branch house established at Los Angeles. Harry Windisch of 
Periodical Department has rounded out 40 years of service. Mr. H. E. 
Cressman became Business Manager. Joseph E. Sagebeer, Ph. D., 
became legal adviser of the Society. Rev. W. H. Main, D. D., becomes 
Associate General Secretary of the Board. 


[ 106 ] 





PERIODICAL SHIPPING DEPARTMENT 
THE Jupson Press BUILDING 





The Annals of the Century 


1922-1923.—Dr. Samuel Graham Neil reports automobile chapel car named 
“ Crawford Memorial” to work at present in Southern California and 
Mexico. He also announced a new Russian Bible from our press, of 
one volume of 1,527 pages, the first edition costing $36,000. Summer 
Assemblies reported in all States in the Northern Baptist Convention 
except two. Doctor Raffety delivers the Yale Sunday School lectures 
through the year. Dr. Daniel G. Stevens, Ph. D., the Book Editor, 
represents the Society in the Baptist World Alliance. 


1923-1924.—The Centennial Celebration of the Society was held February 
24-27, 1924, a pageant being given in the First Church, Philadelphia, on 
Monday, February 25, and addresses being made at the Philadelphia 
Baptist Ministers Conference on the morning of that day and at the 
Memorial Baptist Church and the First Baptist Church on February 26. 
The “ Ernest Leigh Tustin Memorial Auto Chapel Car” was dedicated 
and sent out into service in the Southwest. From several cities the 
story of the Publication Society was broadcast by the radio. O. C. 
Brown, D.D., succeeded W. E. Raffety, Ph. D., as Editor-in-chief of 
Sunday School Publications. C. R. Blackall, D. D., Editor Emeritus 
of Sunday School Publications, died at the ripe age of ninety-four 
years. The mortgage on the printing-house was paid off, and provision 
was made to pay the mortgage on the headquarters building when due. 
Great progress was reported in vacation Bible schools and also in 
week-day schools of religion. 


[ 107 | 


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VIL. 


OFFICIAL NAMES, HOMES, AND DOCUMENTS 





Some do not seem to know that all the property of 
this Society, of every sort—its buildings, machinery, 
material, branch houses, capital, cars, and possessions 
of every kind whatsoever—belongs solely and only to 
the Baptist denomination in America, and is held by 
the corporate Society entirely and exclusively for the 
service of Baptists in the work of publication, colpor- 
tage, Sunday-school missions, and tract and Bible 
distribution, and held only in trust for these pur- 
poses, but never for the profit of any body of men 
or individuals. No one has ever received a dividend, 
or in any way shared in the profits. There are not 
now, nor have there ever been, any stockholders.— 


The Society’s Report of 1893. 








Debs Hate 
Manager 


Toronto Branch 


Mark W. ADAIR 
Manager 


Boston Branch 





Mrs. A. H. HOWELL CHARLES MAJOR PARKER C, PALMER 
Manager Acting Manager 


Asst. Manager 
Seattle Store Chicago Store Los Angeles Branch 





GeorcE L. WuiteE, D.D. 
Manager 


Seattle Branch 


WiLey J. SMITH 
Manager 


Kansas City Branch 


BRANCH MANAGERS 


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THE CORPORATE TITLES 
OF THE 
SOCIETY FOR ONE HUNDRED YEARS 


1824-1840. THE BAPTIST GENERAL TRACT SOCIETY. 


1840-1844. THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION AND SUNDAY 
SCHOOL SOCIETY. 


1844-1870. THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 
1870-1873. THE BIBLE AND PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 
1873-1924. THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 





HEADQUARTERS OF THE SOCIETY 
IN THE ONE HUNDRED YEARS 


WASHINGTON, D. C. 


. 1824-1826. Office of “ The Columbian Star,” 925 E St., N. W. 


PHILADELPHIA, PA. 


. 1826. Front St., west side, few doors below Market, second floor. 


(Rent $100 per year.) January to September 20, 1827. 


. 1827-1829. 118 North Fourth St. (A few shelves with David Clark.) 


September 20, 1827 to June 26, 1829. 


. 1829-1833. Northwest corner Fifth and North Sts. (Rent $200 per 


year.) June 26, 1829 to February 8, 1833. 


5. 1833-1844. 21 South Fourth St. February 8, 1833 to April 1, 1844. 


. 1844-1850. 31 North Sixth St. (Rent $550 per annum.) April 1, 


1844 to April, 1850. 


. 1850-1876. 530 Arch St. (Earlier number, 118 Arch St.) April 1, 


1850 to 1876. 


8. 1876-1896. 1420 Chestnut St.* 1876-1896. 
9. 1896-1898. 1632-4 Chestnut St. (Temporary 1896 to 1898.) 


. 1898-1906. 1420 Chestnut St.* 1898 to 1906. 
Be 
12, 


1906-1908. 1630 Chesnut St. (Temporary 1906 to 1908.) 

1908. 1701-1703 Chestnut St., “The Roger Williams Building.” 1908-. 

1896. 1329 Lombard Street, the PrintING-HousE, “ The Judson Press 
Building,” dedicated October 12. 


18 and to have the same site. 


CONSTITUTION 
OF 
THE BAPTIST GENERAL TRACT SOCIETY 


February 20, 1824 


Art. I. The name of this Society shall be “ The Baptist General Tract 
Society.” Its sole object shall be to disseminate evangelical truth, and to 
inculcate sound morals, by the distribution of tracts. 

Art. II. Any person may become a member of this Society, by paying 
the sum of one dollar annually. The payment of ten dollars at one time, 
shall constitute a person a member for life. 

Art. III. There shall be an annual meeting of the Society on the last 
Wednesday in February, when the following officers shall be chosen by 
ballot, viz.: A President, Vice-president, Agent, Recording Secretary, 
Treasurer, and a Board of Directors, consisting of the President, Vice- 
president, Agent, Recording Secretary, and Treasurer, who shall be 
Directors in consequence of their office; and seven members of the Society. 
Five Directors shall constitute a quorum for business. The Board shall 
have power to supply any vacancy that may occur in its own body. 

Art. IV. The Directors shall superintend the publication and distribu- 
tion of such tracts as they shall approve; the appointment of subordinate 
agents; the establishment of depositories; the formation of auxiliary 
societies, etc. They shall hold frequent meetings, under such regulations 
as they may adopt, in conformity with the general provisions of the Con- 
stitution. They shall appoint the place and the hour for the annual meeting 
of the Society; and may, if they think proper, make arrangements for an 
annual sermon, or public addresses, and a collection for the benefit of the 
Society. The Directors and the Treasurer shall make an annual report of 
their proceedings. 

Art. V. The Agent shall conduct the correspondence of the Society, and 
shall carry into effect the measures adopted by the Board of Directors. 

Art. VI. The Recording Secretary shall keep a record of the proceed- 
ings of the Board of Directors, and of the Society. He shall receive all 
moneys, keep a record of them, and pay them over to the Treasurer. 

Art. VII. Every member shall be entitled to receive three-fourths of 
the amount of his subscription in tracts, at cost. Auxiliary societies shall 
be entitled to the same privilege. 

Art. VIII. Any person, by paying twenty-five dollars at one time, shall 
be a director for life. The Presidents of auxiliary societies shall be ex- 
officio members of the Board of Directors. 

Arr. IX. The President shall call a meeting of the Society, at the re- 
quest of a majority of the Board of Directors. 

Art. X. Any alterations of this Constitution may be made at an annual 
meeting by the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. 


[ 114 ] 


CHARTER _ 
AN ACT TO INCORPORATE 


THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 
| AND SUPPLEMENTS THERETO 


SEcTION 1. .Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is 
hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the persons belonging 
to or composing the Society now called “The American Baptist Publica- 
tion and Sunday School Society” be, and they are hereby created a body 
politic and corporate in law, by the name, style, and title of “The Ameri- 
can Baptist Publication Society,’ and by that name shall have perpetual 
succession, have a common seal, make contracts, may sue and be sued, 
plead and be impleaded, in any Court of record, or in any other place 
whatever; and may also hold any real or personal estate conveyed to them 
by gift, grant, bargain and sale, devise, bequest, or other alienation what- 
soever, and sell and convey the same: Provided, That the clear yearly 
value of the lands, tenements, or other real estate of said Corporation shall 
not exceed the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars. (By an act 
approved July, 1874, this sum was increased to twenty thousand dollars. 
See Supplement No. 3.) 

Sec. 2. The object of this Corporation shall be to publish such works 
of a religious character as shall be approved of for that purpose by the 
Board of Managers. (By an act approved in 1871 this clause was 
amended to read as follows: The object of this Corporation shall be to 
promote evangelical religion by means of the Bible, the Printing-press, 
Colportage, Sunday schools, and other appropriate ways. See Supp'ement 
No. 2.) 

Sec. 3. Its Officers shall be a President, two or more Vice-presidents, a 
Recording Secretary, a Corresponding Secretary, a Treasurer, and twenty- 
one other members who, together, shall constitute a Board of Managers, 
and any five of them shall form a quorum. They shall be elected by ballot 
at the yearly meeting hereinafter provided for; and until the first election 
shall be held in pursuance hereof, the officers of the present Society shall 
be officers of this Corporation; and no failure to hold an election for, or 
to elect any of said officers, shall be deemed a forfeiture of any of the 
corporate privileges hereby conferred, but the same shall continue unim- 
paired thereby, and on such failure, or failures, the officers of the preced- 
ing year shall continue in office until their successors shall be duly elected. 

Sec. 4. A meeting of this Corporation shall be held each year, and at 
such time and place as the Board of Managers may appoint, for the elec- 
tion of officers, and for such other business as it may be necessary for the 
Society to transact. 


[115 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








Sec. 5. Other Associations for a similar object may be made auxiliary 
to this Corporation by such means, and in such manner, as may be directed 
by the Board of Managers, and have the privilege of representation in its 
annual meetings. 

Sec. 6. The Board of Managers shall have power to appoint such other 
officers not hereinbefore provided for, as may be necessary to provide for, 
and to regulate the admission of persons, being citizens of the United 
States, as Corporators; and to make all other laws and regulations neces- 
sary for the good government of the Corporation, and not repugnant to 
the Constitution and Laws of the United States or of this Commonwealth ; 
and the said Corporation shall continue ten years and no longer. (By 
an act approved April 14, 1851, the charter is made perpetual. See Sup- 
plement No. 1.) | 

The original charter was approved March 20, 1845, published in Pamphlet 
Laws of 1845, p. 194. 


SUPPLEMENT No. 1 


To AN Act EnrtTIitLep ‘ An Act To INCORPORATE THE AMERICAN BAPTIST 
PuBLICATION Society,’ APPROVED MarcH TWENTIETH, ONE THOUSAND 
E1cHtT HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE. 


SecTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the 
authority of the same, That the limitation contained in the following 
words “and the said Corporation shall continue ten years and no longer,” 
as found in the Sixth Section of an Act entitled “ An Act to Incorporate 
The American Baptist Publication Society,” approved the twentieth day of 
March, Anno Domini, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-five, to 
which this is a Supplement, be, and the same is hereby repealed, and the 
Charter of the said Society made perpetual. 

Approved the fourteenth day of April, A. D., One Thousand Eight 
Hundred and Fifty-one. 

Published in Pamphlet Laws of 1851, p. 585. 


SUPPLEMENT No. 2 


To AN Act EntTITLeD “ AN Act TO INCORPORATE THE AMERICAN BAPTIST 
PUBLICATION Society,’ APPROVED Marco TWENTIETH, ONE THOUSAND 
E1GHT HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE. 


Section l. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is 
hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that the name, style, and title 
of The American Baptist Publication Society shall be, and the same is 
hereby changed and altered to “ The Bible and Publication Society.” 

‘Sec. 2. The object of this Corporation shall be to promote evangelical 
religion by means of the Bible, the Printing-press, Colportage, Sunday 
schools, and other appropriate ways. 


[ 116 ] 


Official Names, Homes, and Documents 











Sec. 3. That all the privileges, franchises, rights, estates, and powers 
granted by the said Act to which this is a Supplement shall issue to and be 
enjoyed by the said Corporation under its name “ The Bible and Publica- 
tion Society.” 

Src. 4. That all legacies or devises heretofore made, or that may here- 
after be made to The American Baptist Publication Society, shall issue 
to and be enjoyed by the said “ The Bible and Publication Society,” their 
successors or assigns. 

Published in Pamphlet Laws of 1871, p. 649. 


SUPPLEMENT No. 3 


Early in May, 1874, application was made to the Court of Common 
Pleas, asking that the Society’s charter might be amended as follows: 

1. That the name, style, and title of “The Bible and Publication Society” 
be changed to “ The American Baptist Publication Society.” 

2. That the said Corporation may hold real estate to an amount the clear 
yearly value or income whereof shall not exceed “ Twenty Thousand 
Dollars.” 

In the month of July, 1874, the Court granted the above petition in both 
particulars. 

For the details of this application and order of Court, see Records of 
the proceedings recorded in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of Phila- 
delphia, in Charter Book No. 1, p. 338. 


[117 | 


BY-LAWS 
OF 


THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 


Adopted at Chicago, May 11, 1910 
With Amendments Adopted in 1914 and 1919 


ARTICLE I. MEMBERSHIP 


Section 1. The membership of the Society shall be composed as follows: 

(1) Of all persons who are now life-members or honorary life-members ; 

(2) Of annual members appointed by Baptist churches. Any church 
may appoint one delegate, and one additional delegate for every hundred 
members, but no church shall te entitled to appoint more than ten 
delegates ; 

(3) Of all missionaries of the Society during their terms of service; 

(4) Of all accredited delegates to each annual meeting of the Northern 
Baptist Convention. 

Sec. 2. No member shall be entitled to more than one vote. 


ARTICLE II. OFFICERS 


Section 1. The officers of the Society shall be a President, a First Vice- 
president, a Second Vice-president, a Treasurer, one or more Secretaries, 
and a Recording Secretary. They shall be elected by ballot at each annual 
meeting. . 

Sec. 2. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Society. In 
the case of his absence or inability to serve, his duties shall be performed 
by the Vice-president in attendance who is first in numerical order. 

Sec. 3. The Treasurer, the Secretaries, and such officers as the Board 
of Managers may appoint, shall be subject to the direction of the Board, 
and shall discharge such duties as may be defined by its regulations and 
rules of order. 

_ Sec. 4. The Treasurer shall give such security for the faithful perform- 
ance of his duties as the Board of Managers may direct. 

Sec. 5. Each officer shall serve from the close of the annual meeting 
at which he is elected to the close of the next annual meeting, and until 
his successor is elected. 


ArtIcLE IIJ. Boarp or MANAGERS 
Secrion 1. The Board of Managers shall consist of twenty-seven per- 
sons, viz., the officers named in Art. II, Sec. 1, and twenty-one other 


(1187) 


Official Names, Homes, and Documents 


persons, elected by ballot at an annual meeting. At the meeting at which 
these by-laws shall be adopted, one-third of the twenty-one persons shall 
be elected for one year, one-third for two years, and one-third for three 
years, to the end that thereafter, as nearly as practicable, one-third of the 
whole number shall be elected at each subsequent annual meeting to fill the 
vacancies caused by the expiration of terms of office. As many more 
shall be elected also as shall be necessary to fill any vacancies in unexpired 
terms. 

Sec. 2. The Board of Managers shall meet at the principal office of the 
Society to organize as soon as practicable after the annual meeting. 

Sec. 3. The Board of Managers shall have the management of the 
affairs of the Society; shall have the power to elect its own Chairman 
and Recording Secretary, and to appoint such additional officers and 
such committees as to it may seem proper, and to define the powers and 
duties of each; to appoint its own meetings; to adopt such regulations 
and rules as to it may seem proper, including those for the control and 
disposition of the real and personal property of the Society, the sale, leas- 
ing, or mortgaging thereof, provided they are not inconsistent with its 
Act of Incorporation or its By-laws; to fill all vacancies in the Board of 
Managers and in any office of the Society until the next meeting of the 
Society; to establish such agencies and to appoint and remove such agents 
and missionaries as to it may seem proper, by a three-fifths vote of all 
members present and voting at the meeting when said vote is taken; to 
fix the compensation of officers, agents, and missionaries; to direct and 
instruct them concerning their respective duties; and to make all appro- 
priations of money. At the annual meeting of the Society, and at the 
first session of each annual meeting of the Northern Baptist Convention 
it shall present a printed or written, full and detailed report of the pro- 
ceedings of the Society and of its work during the year. 

Sec. 4. The Board of Managers shall appoint annually one of its 
members whose term does not expire the current year to act as an addi- 
tional member of the Committee on Nominations without the right to vote. 


ARTICLE IV. ELIGIBILITY To APPOINTMENT 


All officers, all members of the Board of Managers, and all missionaries 
must be members of Baptist churches. 


ARTICLE V. ANNUAL AND OTHER MEETINGS 


The Society shall meet annually on the third Wednesday in May, 
unless for some special reason another time shall be fixed by the Board 
of Managers on conference with the Executive Committee of the Northern 
Baptist Convention and with representatives of its other cooperating 
organizations. The meeting shall be held where the annual meeting of 
the Northern Baptist Convention shall be held. Special meetings may be 
held at any time and place upon the call of the Board of Managers. 


[ 119 ] 


The First Hundred Years 








ARTICLE VI. RELATIONS WITH NorRTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 


Section 1. With a view to unification in general denominational matters, 
the Northern Baptist Convention at each election may present nominations 
for officers and for the Board of Managers. 

Sec. 2. The persons elected each year as the Committee on Nomina- 
tions of the Northern Baptist Convention shall be for that year the Com- 
mittee of this Society on Nominations for officers then to be elected. 

Sec. 3. The Annual Report of this Society, as soon as it shall be pre- 
pared, shall be forwarded to the officer or committee of the Northern 
Baptist Convention authorized to receive it. 


ARTICLE VII. AMENDMENTS 


These by-laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members 
present and voting at any annual meeting of the Society, provided written 
notice of the proposed amendment shall have been given at the preceding 
annual meeting of the Society, or such amendment shall be recommended 
by the Board of Managers. 


[ 120 ] 


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